Formal complaint made to Care Commission over council ARC closure plans

A FORMAL complaint has been made about the way the council proposed to shut centres for adults with learning disabilities.

The plans were dropped before they reached the public consultation stage, but some service users are unhappy about how the matter was approached.

One of those is Chris Green, a welfare attorney for someone who uses the activity and resource centre (ARC) in Castle Douglas.

He has now complained to the Care Commission, claiming the council acted in a “misleading and deceitful way”.

As a result, he says it caused “an incredible amount of stress, upset, frustration and tears” to the people who use the service.

He has now called on the Care Commission to carry out a “robust” investigation.

A council spokesperson said: “We are aware that a complaint has been made to the Care Commission.

“The council will, of course, co-operate fully with any investigation that the Care Commission deems appropriate.”

Meanwhile, the chief executive of ENABLE Scotland, Norman Dunning, has responded to claims made by a concerned carer in last week’s News.

Jackie McKie of Dalbeattie, who cares for her daughter, attended a conference organised by the charity and the council last week and said it was run like “a dictatorship” with no one allowed to ask questions and described it as an “awful shambles”.

In a letter to the News this week, Mr Dunning wrote: “Rather than discouraging questions, we arranged a number of workshops in the afternoon where the speakers could take questions and discuss issues in depth with the audience.

“With an audience of 120, many of whom had learning disabilities, we felt this was a more effective and informal way of encouraging participation.

“Each of these workshops was characterised by lively debate, where many voices were heard and recorded and will be reported.

“The vast majority of those who attended the event thanked ENABLE Scotland for the chance to learn more about personalisation and some commented on the unacceptable behaviour of a small minority who seemed intent on disrupting the event.”

Mrs McKie also criticised the role Judith Proctor, the council’s head of strategic planning, played in the conference.

When asked to comment, a council spokesperson said: “This event was planned and organised by ENABLE Scotland to provide information to their members and people who use learning disability services about more personalised forms of support.

“This was one of several events that ENABLE Scotland is holding across Scotland.

“Social work services was asked to attend and provide a presentation about how it is providing more self directed support. The scheduling of the programme was not the council’s responsibility.

“The redesign of ARCs was put forward by social work services as a budget savings proposal to be considered by the council as part of the wider consultation on budget savings.

“The council’s policy committee agreed to remove potential budget savings relating to ARCs from the council’s budget process for financial year 2010/11.”