YOUNG adults will not be left without the care they need when the “lifeline” service they depend on closes in January next year, parents have been assured.
Newton House is the only place in Bath and North East Somerset where people with severe care needs who live with their families can access respite care, a short stay away from home so their full-time carers can have a short break. This can be the only time their parents can get a full night’s sleep or get chores done.
But Newton House is set to close in January 2026 – and parents have warned Bath and North East Somerset Council that they will not be able to cope without it.
Now council care chiefs have given assurances that people who need respite care will not lose out on it, or have to go out of area to access it.
B&NES Council is reassessing the needs of the 17 families who use on Newton House. It will then carry out a review into the best way of providing respite care in the future. But families have urged the council to act fast.
Wendy Lucas, whose daughter Rhiannon is 28 and has attended Newton House a couple of nights a week for ten years, addressed the council’s scrutiny panel on children, adults, health and wellbeing on Monday April 14.
She said: “Most of us want to continue to look after our loved ones for as long as possible. They are our children and for their entire lives we have provided their continuity of care. However, we cannot do this without statutory support we are entitled to.
“I therefore urge this panel to pick up the pace and ensure that robust plans are in place to replace Newton House by January 1, 2026. I also urge the panel to commit to ensuring that continuity of service is guaranteed to all the Newton House families.”
She told the panel: “These young adults are some of the most complex young people who require support from this council.
“As a result, their move to any other care scenario will need to be managed carefully, and eight months is an extremely tight deadline in which to achieve this.”
Newton House is run by registered housing association Dimensions, which said the short breaks service had become unaffordable. B&NES Council is the sole customer of the service.
Despite the closure date in January, council care chiefs said this was not a hard deadline and they expected to have more time if required.
Council cabinet member for adult services Alison Born told the panel: “We have given assurances that we will continue to commission respite services from Newton House and it will remain open until we have completed the needs assessments and commissioning review.”
She told the families in attendance: “We are listening to what you say you need to shape what we commission in the future. We absolutely recognise that we cannot have a gap in services.”
A council report will come before the panel in June setting out three options for respite care services in future. They are expected to be: continuing to commission respite care through Dimensions, the council directly providing its own respite care service in house, or putting a tender for respite care services out to market.
Also attending the panel alongside Ms Lucas was Derek Greenman, whose stepson, Michael, is 30 and has quadriplegic cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and no voice, and Richard and Julie Franklin, of Keynsham, whose son Ryan Probert is 28 and has an unbalanced translocation of chromosomes, which means he is small, is non-verbal, and needs medication and a very high level of care.
The Franklins were only both able to attend the panel meeting because Ryan was at Newton House.
Newton House was originally scheduled to close at the end of January this year, but the closure was pushed back to 2026 after an outcry from families and councillors.
Families received a letter in November 2024 telling them that the service would end in just a few months’ time.
Mr Franklin raised the alarm on Facebook, launched a petition now signed by almost 3,000 people, and took the issue to the council with his local councillor David Biddleston.
Leading councillors had been unaware of the decision to close Newton House until Mr Franklin shared the news.
Mr Franklin has described Newton House as Ryan’s “lifeline.”
He said: “We are left to enjoy the free time, something of a bit of a normal life. We know Ryan enjoys his time there and away from us having a break is no difference to all our kids going away from their parents and enjoying that free time.”
John Wimperis, Local Democracy Reporting Service
Pictured above, parents (left to right) Derek Greenman, Julie Franklin, Richard Franklin, and Wendy Lucas.
Below, Ryan Probert, of Keynsham, who is Julie and Richard’s son, and Rhiannon Lucas, daughter of Wendy
