Selby respite care charity closes due to lack of funds

A CHARITY that has helped hundreds of carers in the Selby area is closing after 15 years due to lack of funds. Crossroads Care, based in Gowthorpe, offers respite care for people who look after family members.

Trustee Mary Fagan said its services included running groups for dementia sufferers which allowed family members to have a few hours off.

Children’s clubs were held for youngsters with illnesses or severe disabilities so parents could have an hour or two to themselves, and the aim was generally to take some of the burden from carers’ shoulders. In total, 121 carers were helped last year.

But the charity is now to close with the loss of 15 jobs due to uncertainty over funding. Running costs for the last financial year were nearly £250,000.

The charity will close at the end of this month.

A spokeswoman for the national charity said: “The environment in which social care providers such as local Crossroads Care organisations are operating has been changing for a number of years and continues to change.

“Services are, quite rightly, expected to be of an increasingly high quality, while competition for contracts is growing and income generally is becoming more difficult to generate. Sadly, a very small number of organisations that are members of the Crossroads Care network, including Crossroads Care Selby, have found the combination of challenges facing them very difficult to deal with.”