The Future of Day Centres

This afternoon I attended the Abingdon Health and Wellbeing Centre for an event with stakeholders to discuss the future of day opportunities for adult social care in Oxfordshire.  The County Council is currently consulting on the future of day centres and new increased charges could be introduced, including transport costs.  You can take part in the consultation here which ends on 31st October.

In April this year, my Opposition group had a motion agreed at Council which called for a fair and affordable easy-to-access transport service to day centres in Oxfordshire which would ensure that the elderly continue to attend their local day centre at a cost they can afford.  A transport review has been undertaken and should the current consultation lead to increased charges the future of some day centres could become unviable.

I used to work for Age Concern Oxfordshire (now Age UK) and I know how much older people enjoy socialising and being able to get out of their own house, even if it is for only one or two sessions a week.   Personalised budgets now mean that people are responsible for their own financial arrangements and if the costs of attending day centres increase too much then residents may chose not to go any more.  I am hoping that this will not be the case.  We are fortunate in our area to have both the Wantage Day Centre which has been recently refurbished, and also our own volunteer Grove Day Centre.  Both of these are excellent and well-established local facilities which are greatly valued by our senior citizens.

Now, county councillors have a say in where grant funding is allocated within their divisions and Cllr. Jenny Hannaby and I were keen to support both the October Club in Wantage and the Grove Day Centre when they put forward their bids to the County Council for funding.