Councillors vote to close day centres in Redcar and Cleveland area as user numbers fall

Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council’s cabinet members voted unanimously to start the consultation process with staff, carers and users that will result in Upsall Hall, at Nunthorpe, and The Settlement, at Ormesby, closing their doors.

However, the council has promised there will be greater provision in the community plus a resource service to provide a range of information and advice.

A consultation into the future provision of day services took place between October 8 last year and January 7, and the findings showed that service users and their carers want to have more choices available to them in relation to day opportunities.

Councillor Sheelagh Clarke, cabinet member for health and social wellbeing, said: “There was good support from those that we consulted with for the change. We are looking at developing a future model by taking into account those comments we had in the consultation process.

“I hope, and I think that we can, achieve a much better person-centred day services than we have at this moment in time.”

When asked about the impact proposed closures would have on job losses she confirmed there would be up to 30 people affected, including eight who had learning disabilities.

She said: “We have already spoken to staff, we are to follow that same route that we in the past and we hope to provide the chance to relocate for them but if they want redundancy or early retirement we will try to help them.

“Eight of those are people with learning disabilities themselves and we are looking at trying to relocate them within the borough – we don’t want to abandon any of them.”

Members of the cabinet voted unanimously to go ahead with the closure of both sites and start a fresh consultation process with staff, carers and users.

The changes will mean that the High Hills centre in Brotton, the service in North Skelton village hall, and Redcar Satellite based at the Grenfell Club in Redcar, will remain open.