Agenda item

Shona McFarlane, Director of Health and Wellbeing presented the submitted report which outlined details of the consultation and proposed options for the future of the service currently provided at Park Lea.

The plan was to integrate the existing services, service users and staff into Oaks and Addison services.  This would be achieved by:

• Developing the existing outreaches for older people at Oak Trees and developing a new outreach service for older people at St Johns Church Centre in Swinton, at Swinton Potteries in Swinton and at Bakersfield Court in Herringthorpe;

• Increasing the number of places and days at existing outreaches currently provided by Oaks at St James Church Centre in Wath and Addison services at Durlston House;

• By increasing the number of places provided each day at the Elliott Centre and using the Elliott Centre as a Borough-wide service.

Consultation took place with a range of stakeholders including people who currently used day services, their carers/families, providers, community team workers, staff from across day services, Unions and the senior management team.  Methods included individual meetings, individual letters, open day events at Addison, Oaks and the proposed new outreach service.  Taster sessions at the proposed new venues were also set up.  Two open meetings were held at each venue as well as individually arranged meetings which were well attended – in total over 50 carers and families took the opportunity to visit either individually or at the open events.  Carers were very positive and wanted to know how soon the proposed move would happen.

People directly affected by the proposed changes were consulted on an individual basis and provided with the options available to them.  The consultation was completed by the most appropriate people, eg key workers/managers or in some identified cases the Group Manager.  All consultation meetings were recorded and confirmation letter would be sent to individuals confirming decisions reached following the approval of the proposals by Members.

Proposed Options

Option 1 – To attend the proposed new outreach service for older people

Option 2 – To transfer to Addison/Oaks

Option 3 – To transfer to the Elliott Centre

The consultation meetings had been very successful and no negative feedback had been received.  The service had been praised by carers and their families and whilst people would be sad to move from Park Lea, both service users and staff were eager to move and were excited by the changes.

A question and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised:

• Where did consultation take place?  Was it just at Park Lea or did it extend to service users and carers at Oaks/Addison?  It was confirmed that consultation had been undertaken with users and carers at Park Lea only, and there had been no resistance to the proposals.
• A comment was made that carers at Oaks/Addison were not happy that service users were being moved around to accommodate Park Lea service users
• Whether the service had already started.  Confirmation was given that instructions had been left that nothing would change until approval had been given by the Cabinet Member at this meeting.
• Concerns were raised about the proposal to reduce the service from a full day to half a day.  The Director of Health and Wellbeing confirmed that there would be no reduction in service for anyone unless they requested it.
• Could Park Lea be used by the Council for other purposes in the future.  The Director of Health and Wellbeing confirmed that this was being investigated and would be reported back at a future meeting.

Resolved:- (1) That the proposals set out in the report be approved

(2) That the report be presented to Scrutiny Panel on 4^th June, 2009

(3) That a report be brought to a future meeting in relation to whether Park Lea could be utilised by the Council for other purposes in the future.