Changes to adult social care as closure of Dean Row announced

Cheshire East Council announced yesterday that Dean Row Day Centre will be closed and day care services for those with learning disabilities will be transferred to the Redesmere Centre in Handforth.

Following a review of the future provision of adult social care services, which included a three-month public consultation, the Council's Cabinet agreed to a set of key changes at their meeting on Monday, 5th March.

Redesmere will receive investment to improve specialist facilities and capacity so it can be developed into a multi purpose centre.

In addition, the Cabinet agreed to invest in new Changing Places facilities and enhanced lifestyle facilities at Wilmslow Leisure Centre.

The three-month consultation on proposals to potentially transfer some day and short break services from the Stanley Centre and Bexton Court, in Knutsford and also Peatfields in Macclesfield; Dean Row in Wilmslow and Queens Drive in Nantwich ended in December 2011.

Hundreds of people, including service users and carers across Cheshire East, took part in this process, and 6507 signatures were collected on a petition organised by Knutsford Area for Knutsford Action (KAFKA) for Local Services for Local People to be within the Local Area.

Cllr Roland Domleo, Cabinet member with responsibility for adult services, said "The purpose of this exercise has been to try and deliver the right services in the right places, and services that are affordable and sustainable. The status quo is not an option as our customer's requirements change and the financial situation is ever worsening owing to constant increasing demand and a very difficult national financial situation. We are also seeing the effects of people receiving direct payments buying their care from whom they want and from where they want."

Speaking about Wilmslow, Cllr Domleo said " Wilmslow has two day centres, Dean Row and Redesmere relatively close to each other with spare capacity between them. If we invest in more facilities at Redesmere, the customers of Dean Row can transfer to Redesmere, so that we will have one viable and sustainable facility. Staff will move from Dean Row to Redesmere."

An investment of £182,000 will be made in facilities at Macclesfield and Wilmslow leisure centres to continue with a new type of day care for those with learning disabilities who are fit and active.

Speaking about the leisure centres, Cllr Rod Menlove said "We ran a pilot in terms of lifestyle facilities, this was a low cost pilot at the leisure centres. Some 15 individuals attended Wilmslow and some 20 to 25 attended Macclesfield, which proved extremely popular and enabled us to authorise expenditure to make a significant improvement to facilities. This shows the way we are looking forward at what we need to do in the future rather than what has been acceptable in the past."

Cllr Domleo said "The prototype for younger and fitter people with a learning disability to be able to use the leisure centre facilities and have instant access to the town centre has been successful, and given people a choice. However, we recognise that this is appropriate for only a limited number of people.

"We now need to invest in the facilities for our customers with a learning disability along with the provision of a 'Changing Places' toilet, which has already been approved and which will be suitable for even those with a very high level of disability, whether or not they are customers of the leisure centre."

Additional changes agreed at the Cabinet meeting on Monday, 5th March, include:

Retention of the Stanley Centre in Knutsford but with investment to separate it from Stanley House and improve bathroom facilities;
Bexton Court in Knutsford to permanently close;
Create a new day care centre for people with dementia on the Hollins View site in Macclesfield, with services transferring over from Mayfields, also in Macclesfield;
Mayfields to provide services previously provided at Peatfields;
Close offices at 48/54 Lawton Street, Congleton, with staff relocated to other buildings;
Develop Mountview, Congleton, to expand the dementia respite facility and provide an early disability respite wing;
A new learning disability respite wing to be built at Lincoln House, Crewe;
Transfer service users at the Queen's Drive facility to Lincoln House and Mountview, if closer for users.

Changes are intended to be made as soon as possible to deliver savings of £318,000 in 2012/13. There will also be a potential capital receipt of £1.18m from buildings deemed surplus to requirements.

Councillor Roland Domleo said: "I would like to acknowledge the participation of all those customers and their carers who made their views known during this process.

"I hope these final decisions will show that the many views we have received have been taken into account and I am delighted that users have expressed delight in our findings.

"There have been very strong calls to keep care 'local'. Whilst we would like everyone to have services on their doorstep we have to be pragmatic in how local that doorstep can be and we must cut our coat according to our cloth.

"As we have said repeatedly during this consultation, there was no intention to reduce services – rather we are relocating some of them into improved and expanded facilities that are fully equipped to meet with the demands of today, and tomorrow.

"Cheshire East is committed to maximising choice for customers under personalisation and will continue to provide day and respite services, which we will monitor and continue to redesign in line with changing demand and expectations."