A VITAL care service would have closed “without a murmur” if it hadn’t been for a Keynsham family’s awareness campaign, councillors have been told.
Newton House in Bath offers short stays for people with severe care needs, allowing their full-time carers to have a short break.
The five-bed building is the only respite care facility for adults with complex high care needs in Bath and North East Somerset – but now care provider Dimensions, which runs the service, has said it is “unviable” and plans to shut it down and turn the building into a residential care home.
As reported in the January issue of the Voice, Richard and Julie Franklin, of Keynsham, started a petition to save Newton House after news of the closure threat emerged.
Mr Franklin is one of three parents with adult children with high care needs who urged Bath and North East Somerset Council to save the “godsend” service.
Another of the parents, Derek Greenman, told a meeting of the council’s scrutiny panel on adult services on January 13: “We feel absolutely devastated by this decision. It’s almost like you don’t have a future. That’s how you feel. You feel completely lost.”
His stepson, Michael, is 30 and has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and no voice.
Mr Greenman said: “The bombshell regarding Newton House left us completely stunned over Christmas.”
The closure was announced for the end of January but is now “paused” until alternate arrangements have been found for people who use the service.
Dimensions is a registered housing association and is not run by Bath and North East Somerset Council. But the council is under a statutory duty to assess and provide for people’s care needs, including providing respite care where required. It is the sole customer at Newton House.
Wendy Lucas’s daughter, Rhiannon, is 28 and spends two nights a week at Newton House.
Ms Lucas told the panel: “We actually need respite care so we can sleep. We only sleep fully two nights a week.”
She found out about the plans to close Newton House when she saw it discussed on Facebook. Dimensions and Bath and North East Somerset Council had written joint letters to all parents to say the respite service would end at the end of January, but Ms Lucas said her letter didn’t arrive.
She said: “If Richard [Franklin] had not made everyone aware, Newton House would have closed without a murmur.”
Mr Franklin’s stepson Ryan, also 28, has an unbalanced translocation of chromosomes, which means he is small, non-verbal, and needs medication and a very high level of care.
In December, after learning of the plans to close Newton House, Mr Franklin raised the issue on social media and launched a petition to save the facility, which has now been signed by more than 2,400 people.
Mr Franklin is the window cleaner of local councillor David Biddleston (Keynsham South, Labour), who helped him raise the issue with the council.
Mr Biddleston said: “Closing respite care in this way is traumatic for these families, and council will be measured by the way that it looks after its most vulnerable residents.”
A council report which went before the scrutiny panel meeting on January 13 said that telling parents the home would be closing had been an “error” because alternate provision had not been found for everyone using Newton House.
Joanna Wright (Lambridge, Green), who sits on the committee, said: “We have a whole group of people we know nothing about and their families don’t have any support for. So this is really important that we have a promise from the cabinet member that a proper review of this situation will take place from today.”
Alison Born, council cabinet member for adult services, said: “That work is happening. I can give that assurance.”
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporting Service
Pictured top, Ryan Probert. Below, Richard Franklin (left) with David Biddleston outside Bath Guildhall
