CARERS have been forced to set up a do-it-yourself-style day centre for some of Westminster’s most vulnerable people.
 

The Centre for Independent Living in Paddington, which offers activities for deaf and wheelchair-bound residents, will close at the end of this month as part of a shake-up of social care.People with disabilities who have been fighting the closure now plan to club together to stage regular art and cookery classes at another venue nearby.

Di Yeo, chair of campaign group SOS Westminster, called the impending closure “a great tragedy”.

But she praised as “positive” a pledge made this week by social care chiefs to help cover the costs of renting a new venue. 

She said: “We are dashing around trying to find places to hire that are not going to cost the earth and we have done assessments to find out what activities our members want.

It’s all very last-minute because we didn’t know until quite late that the centre was going to close.

We are looking for somewhere in Westminster not too far from the old centre because our people have trouble getting around and have to use taxicards. 

“All we need is to find a church hall or a room with disabled facilities and a toilet and we’re off. 

“If any readers know of anywhere, or if anyone would like to donate a venue, please get in touch.”  

Under government reforms, disabled people assessed as requiring a high amount of care have been encouraged to use “personal budgets”, payments allocated by local authorities, to buy services from elsewhere.

 

The council has claimed the reforms will allow beneficiaries greater control over their care, but the National Audit Office this week warned many vulnerable people were struggling to understand the new system.Rosemary Delim-Arif, who lives in St John’s Wood and gets around in a wheelchair owing to the effects of multiple sclerosis, has been attending the Centre for Independent ­Living for eight years.

She said she had only been contacted by social care workers this week despite council claims that all users had been dealt with months ago.

Mrs Yeo said: “We’ve been being told since Christmas that everyone has been assessed but most of them have only heard very recently. There has been an unnecessary few months of anxiety because the council did not get their act together.”

According to disputed research published this week by the charity Scope and think-tank Demos, budget cuts are having a more severe impact in Westminster than in almost any other local authority in the country. 

The council came third in a list of councils where cuts are having the greatest impact on the front line.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services has dismissed the report as sensationalist, while the council insists it is based on flawed data.

Councillor Daniel Astaire called the report: “a cheap attempt to gain publicity using fiddled figures to frighten our residents”.

He added: “Westminster provides highly regarded social services to thousands of people and although we’ve reduced some services, £130million will still be spent on provision this year.

In addition our latest poll shows that nearly 80 per cent of older people are pleased with the services they get from the council.”

The council has said adult service spending cuts are the result of “tough decisions” which had to be made because of a cut in funding from central government.

It has commissioned Hammersmith and Fulham Action on Disability to work with users of the Centre for Independent Living.

http://www.westendextra.com/news/2011/sep/sos-westminster-disabled-and-carers-plan-fight-closure-centre-independent-living