Closure date for Plymouth learning disability unit comes as bitter blow

PEOPLE with learning disabilities have been told their much loved respite unit will close in March.

Plymouth City Council made the controversial decision to axe services at Welby respite unit in Peverell last November but a date for its closure wasn’t finalised.

Now the 40 people who use the centre, and their families, have been dealt the devastating news that Welby will cease to operate from March 31.

“Our daughter is absolutely in bits about this,” said Jan Halifax, whose daughter Emma stays overnight at Welby once a month.

“This has made her so distrustful of everyone, the trust she built up at Welby has been completely ruined.”

When news of the closure first broke it was also reported that Colwill Lodge respite unit in Estover would be expanded as part of plans to improve and modernise adult social care services.

Emma has been given a budget which her parents can use to cover her respite and leisure activities.

But Mrs Halifax has been told Emma is “not eligible” to stay at Colwill Lodge, which she says leaves very few alternatives. One is for Emma to stay overnight in a hotel with a carer employed to look after, Mrs Halifax said.

“The promised modernisation of services is a dismantling of services,” said Mrs Halifax, adding that providing respite service in an hotel denies her daughter from forging relationships outside of her family, making her feel lonely and isolated.

“We are not going to have enough money in the budget for her to use this facility and go to a day centre,” said the 56-year-old.

“I can see these hotels saying our children are too disruptive and they have other guests to think about.”

The distraught mother, who lives with Emma and husband Dave in Plympton, said they will probably lose the overnight stay because of the new system.

“Respite is not just for the people using it, it’s support for the carers as well,” she said. Do they think we can cope 24 hours a day seven days a week? Could they in our situation?”

The extension at Colwill Lodge, expanding the site by around 50 per cent should be complete by the end of the summer, but as Cllr Grant Monahan, portfolio holder for adult health and social care explains, the centre is not suitable for everyone.

“Colwill is better suited to more acute cases,” he said adding that others will be given personalised budgets which give more choice.

These include employing personal assistants to help with daily living and enabling users to move into their own home and pay for appropriate support. The whole ethos behind reviewing the way we were delivering the service was not cost cutting,” said Cllr Monahan.

“It was to modernise the way services are delivered and give users more independence to choose what they want to do in terms of respite or short breaks.”