Social Work Chief Insists It Is Right To Axe Day Centre

A social work chief yesterday said he would stand up and fight the planned closure of a day centre for vulnerable adults in Aberdeen if he did not believe it was the right move.

Aberdeen City Council’s head of health and social care Murray Lees defended moves to close Burnside day centre for adults with learning difficulties as part of a cost-cutting overhaul of his department.

Burnside and Rosehill day centres are to be merged by this summer, with the closure of Burnside in Mastrick Drive said by the council to be its “preferred option”.

Mr Lees said this and other changes associated with a £8.6million cut in the social work budget were in the best interests of users.

“One of the things we’re up against is getting social work expenditure back within budget – we constantly overspent and we’re at the end of our ability to do that,” he said.

“I think there has been over-provision in Aberdeen in certain areas. If we had unlimited cash we would continue with some of these things and we would certainly change them more slowly.

“But I’ll be honest with you, I’ve come back to Aberdeen in the last two-and-half years, I’ve worked with most local authorities in Scotland, and the way we do things in Aberdeen has already changed in 90% of those other authorities.

“They don’t have the big day centres any more.

“If I thought it was the right way to do things I would have stood up in front of elected members and said ‘keep Burnside’.”

The council spends more on learning disabilities than any other local authority in mainland Scotland, he said.

“The institutional feel of our centres in Aberdeen shocked me, but in saying that I also firmly believe there is a place for centre-based day support – that’s why we’re keeping one of the centres.”

Changes in eligibility criteria for people receiving social work care has left many with services withdrawn, and others facing being moved to different types of support.

Mr Lees said that alternative support was being established through a consortium of voluntary-sector service providers.

The council’s social work department was heavily criticised by government inspectors in two reports last year, but Mr Lees vowed that there would be no return to previous ways of working.

“The confidence I have got is that there is no way I’m going to let services in Aberdeen get back into the state they were in,” he said.

Aberdeen South Labour MP Anne Begg last night interrupted a Commons debate on a report by the work and pensions committee to warn of the risks if Aberdeen City Council proceeds with its proposed closure of one of the two day centres.

She said the move would reduce the respite care available to relieve pressure on carers.

Miss Begg referred in her speech to a story in the Press and Journal, in which the council claimed its plans were intended to save money but also “improve the service users’ lives.”

Miss Begg said that “in withdrawing services for adults with disabilities, the council has not considered the impact that it will have on carers, who will have to pick up from where the council has left off.”

She added: “This behaviour amounts to nothing short of a diminution of human rights.

“A measure of how civilised we are is how we treat those who are most vulnerable, and part of this package is how we treat their carers.”

Relatives of the disabled people facing reassessment attended a meeting at the Sportsman’s Club in Aberdeen’s Queen’s Road last night where they decided to launch a petition.

They will be outside Marks and Spencer in the city centre tomorrow. The group also intend to hold a further meeting next month to decide what action to take.