Consultation response delays Lincolnshire County Council’s day care decision
KEY talks on plans to close day centre services have been pushed back after an “unprecedented response” to a consultation.
Lincolnshire County Council launched a 90-day consultation in October on plans to close day centres across county and move care users onto the personal budget scheme, which lets them choose where to spend their public care grant.
The Stamford and Bourne Learning Disability Services, based in Abbey Road, was among the centres earmarked for closure.
Tracey Byles, 48, of Austerby, Bourne cares for her 23-year-old daughter who is severely disabled. She started a petition opposing the plans to shut day centre services and got more than 850 signatures.
Bourne MP Nick Boles got behind Tracy’s cause and agreed to hand over the petition to the council. And more than 550 questionnaires and 50 letters were returned to the council in response to the consultation.
The council’s adult scrutiny committee was due to discuss the feedback next month but the volume of responses means talks have had to be pushed back to March.
Coun Graham Marsh (Con) is the council’s executive member for adult social care and supporting people. He said: “We said at the start of the consultation that we were keen to hear everyone’s views and that nothing was off the table.
“We’ve been delighted to receive unprecedented levels of feedback and thank everyone for their contribution.
“As a consequence, adult social care is being allowed more time to give proper consideration of every view and to ensure thorough analysis of the findings.
“The review has been prompted by people moving on to the national personal budget scheme and we’re seeing more and more choosing to spend their money on things better-tailored to their individual needs.
“This means we need to look again at how we deliver our own directly provided services, as they quickly become less cost-efficient for the taxpayer.”
The consultation feedback will be analysed in full before going to the council’s executive for a final decision on March 6.
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