Move to retain Forres respite centre met with relief

The manager of a Moray respite centre which has been facing closure spoke last night of her relief at a decision to keep it open.

Alison Broadley, manager of the Taigh Farrais centre at Forres, said she was “absolutely delighted” that Moray councillors agreed yesterday to retain the facility, which provides respite for people with physical disabilities.

They decided changes should be made to the running of the centre on MacDonald Drive, Forres, where 85% of users are currently from neighbouring local authority areas.

It costs Moray Council more than £160,000 a year to run it.

The centre can provide 204 care weeks per year, but only 31 of those were taken up by Moray residents in 2009.

The council’s health and social care services committee was told yesterday that most of the additional capacity was taken up by people from Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire and Highland.

None of those authorities contribute towards the £150,000 which Moray Council gives annually to voluntary group Grampian Living Options to run Taigh Farrais.

The committee was told this arrangement dated from the days of Grampian Regional Council, which used to cover Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City, Banffshire, Kincardine and Moray. It was broken up in 1996 to be replaced with smaller local authorities such as Moray Council.

Members were also told that both Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire were redesigning their respite services, and it was likely they would significantly reduce their use of Taigh Farrais, making it financially unsustainable and liable to closure. After considering several options, the committee agreed to operate the centre as a Moray Council resource.

Committee chairman Councillor Lee Bell said: “It was recognised that the existing staff have a high level of skills that can be used flexibly in a number of ways.

“They will continue to provide respite as required, albeit this will be focused on Moray service users.”

He added: “Additional staff capacity can be used to support respite or care provision in a community setting and for other client groups, which could help offset the costs of operating Taigh Farrais.

“There is also the possibility of generating some additional income through selling on respite provision to other local authorities – but that would be required to be at an economic rate.”

Alison Broadley said: “Everybody has been in limbo, not knowing what was going to happen.

“We’re very lucky that Moray Council has had the sense to realise they would be wasting a valuable resource.”

Mrs Broadley added that the centre is now fully booked until November.