DATED day centres used by vulnerable adults face being axed and other care services outsourced as part of a major council review.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council hopes to save £250,000 by closing the two centres for adults with learning difficulties and transferring the users elsewhere.
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Portland House.
The authority is also planning to outsource its remaining facilities and some of the 150 staff to voluntary or not-for-profit organisations in a bid to cut costs.
Now 750 people using the council’s learning disability service are set to be asked for their views in a three-month public consultation starting on July 8.
Members of the council’s cabinet are expected to approve the consultation process at a meeting next week.
The proposals include:
Discontinuing services at Duke Street, in Fenton, and Portland House, Middleport;
Investing
£2.8 million in refurbishing The Meadows, below, in Bucknall;
Re-designing Meakin House, in Shelton, St John’s Centre, in Abbey Hulton, Waterside, in Blurton, Riverside, in Stoke and the Able Project, in Fenton;
Considering retaining or transferring some of the 150 staff employed across the centres to outside organisations.
The council believes the most savings can be made by selling off buildings no longer fit for purpose with users assessed on an individual basis before being transferred to another venue.
Service users and carers are unlikely to see any major changes to the system until March 2016.
Tony Oakman, council director for adult social care, said: “We are confident that the quality of the care provided to the people concerned won’t be affected.
“We feel there are some really good alternatives.”
By the end of the consultation Mr Oakman says the authority may scrap the proposals and investigate new options or apply changes to only some of the facilities.
It is also possible that some of the sites may still be retained by the council.
The Meadows was closed as a care home by the council in 2012 as part of a £24 million cuts programme. It was turned into a facility for adults with learning difficulties.
Councillor Gwen Hassall, cabinet member for social care, said: “Now people have their own care budgets we want to ensure that there is choice for them.”
