Ongoing support for people who attend the Anchorage, Bro Preseli and Lee Davies Day Centres and their families remains the highest priority during required changes to Day Opportunities provision in Pembrokeshire, Council Cabinet Members heard in September last year.

This was the meeting when they backed a recommendation to close the Pembroke Dock day centre on November 1 and exit service level agreements at the Narberth and Crymych centres.

Cllr Tessa Hodgson, Cabinet Member for Social Care and Safeguarding, said: “I wish to emphasise that no service users will be left without provision following the decision here today and we will continue to work closely with everyone to ensure a positive outcome for all day opportunities users.”

Caroline Jones is just one of the parent/carers of the day care centre users, but she maintains she speaks for others who fought PCC’s decision to close the Anchorage Social Activity Centre which was much loved and well supported by the local and wider community when she writes:

“We have been treated very badly by Pembrokeshire County Council who made excuses and inaccurate information in an attempt to save money. Sadly though they are still taking us for fools.”

Her letter was prompted by the Director of Social Care and Housing’s ‘Day Centre Update’ which was prepared for the Cabinet on January 13. Caroline believes that the update is “extremely premature” seeing as it had only been 10 weeks since the closure, and two of these weeks were taken up with the Christmas and New Year holidays.

She describes the council’s statement on the importance of monitoring how service users adapt to the changes, reviewing progress and outcomes to report back to Cabinet as “giving themselves a pat on the back for all their hard work.”

“The feedback received from service users and their parents/carers has been largely positive,” the report claims. “Whilst many people would have preferred to stay at the Anchorage SAC the alternative venues including the community settings have been received positively.”

In Caroline’s view, social workers were hurriedly brought in merely to rush through an assessment ostensibly taking into account service users’ individual needs and providing the necessary support required.

“The assessment the social workers had written were inaccurate assumptions and fabrications, at best,” she writes.

“It came as no surprise for us, when they arrived, that they knew absolutely nothing about our loved ones - considering that they had not seen a social worker or an assessment done for over 10 years - even longer for one attendee: closer to 30 years.

“The Cabinet’s new in-house Day Opportunities and the ‘transition plan’ as they called it just shows the ignorance of PCC not knowing (or more likely not caring), that you cannot take just four weeks for a transition.”

There is a well-known saying that the devil is in the details… Caroline continues:

“The detailed plan was anything but detailed because we didn’t know what day service was going to take place on a Tuesday until the day before.”

As luck would have it, Pembroke Dock library was closed to the public on that day so it was decided that the clients could go there.

“I would like to know though what ignoramus came up with that: Placing people with Learning Disabilities, who can barely read or write in a building filled with nothing but books!” Caroline writes. “The irony of this has not gone unnoticed.”

There is one question she would like the council to answer: “When and where were our wishes and feedback supposed to have been taken into account? Because from where I stand you didn’t take anything we said into consideration. It was definitely a case of this is what we are doing take it or leave it.”

Speaking of feedback the council claims to have received from the service users, Caroline wonders exactly when the comment “I chose St John’s. I enjoy being with my friends and staff” was made.

“This insight certainly didn’t take place in St John’s,” she argues, “because if it had you would have been told how cold the hall is.

“In fact it’s freezing, so much so that they are sitting around in their coats, hats and gloves. Bearing in mind that many are wheelchair users and cannot move around physically, it is affecting their health.

“One person suffered from chilblains and couldn’t use any other day services for over a week, and is now not attending until the weather improves. Another has had a runny nose and cough since December.

“These are only two examples but they are all suffering.”

Did PCC not receive that feedback? Caroline knows that they have been told about the conditions because she emailed the council herself.

She adds that Pembrokeshire County Council were supposed to be sorting out the Friday day service at Milford Haven with transport for the ones who were wanting to go there. This was requested in early December but in February they had still heard nothing about when they can start.

“The same applies to the equipment that was promised: mobile changing systems - to name one vital piece of equipment for some service users - again nothing has materialised - so they are unable to attend the day service they prefer, not the one they have to go to because of lack of equipment. This again shows that the day service is not a priority.

Caroline then goes on to a “vitally important point that the council will not want to hear or discuss”: how the parents/carers and their loved ones coping with the changes at home.

“They are not coping well. Some have reverted back to self-harming behaviour which they do when they are having trouble adjusting to the disruption in their routine.”

One of the other parents told her that when the attendees had a taster session at Meadow Park her daughter got very upset and cried for days afterwards because she never wanted to go there again. She started biting the inside of her mouth which caused a huge abscess requiring surgery. Down syndrome people don’t react well to general anaesthetic, so it was a tough time for the whole family. She was re-admitted to Morriston Hospital last week.

“This is having an impact on our daily life and causing an impact on our health as well,” adds Caroline. “Has this fact even been considered?”

Finally, she expresses curiosity toward a statement in the Update regarding the council’s aim to move a from building-based to a community-focused model:

“St John’s Hall, a building, sorry a very cold building. Pembroke Dock Library, a building, another totally unsuitable place for them where they have very little to do there. VC Gallery, a building, luckily the service offered there is loved by all but does not have the changing equipment required.

Concluding her letter, Caroline asks: “As for the assessments mentioned in the update for Cabinet which are supposed to be in October, is that going to happen within the next 10 years?

“I have a lot more to say but I will finish for the time being. However Pembrokeshire County Council has not heard the last from the attendees and parent/carers.”