Where will users go when the day centres close?

As the government has announced that many long-term campuses for people with learning disabilities are to close, the question has to be asked what will happen to residents when they are back in the community, as swathes of day centres across the UK are also facing closure.

Although most advocates for people with learning disabilities welcome the fact that authorities are attempting to modernise the system, both service users and those that support them say that shutting day centres point blank is not the answer.

Some local authorities which are closing day centres admit that it is because they have to cut costs, but others insist it is for the good of people with learning disabilities. It has to be said, though, that councils should have to ensure that they have alternative facilities or other initiatives already in place before day centres shut their doors to people with learning disabilities.

While Blackburn Council is set to close the Mowbray Day Centre in September, authorities claim it is because the number of users has fallen as people participate in more activities in the community.

But John Edwards, social secretary of Blackburn Disabled Persons Group, told This is Lancashire: "It makes me very, very angry. Day care centres are a life line for some disabled people, they are the only opportunity to get out of their homes. They rely on the centres to get social interaction. It is very, very sad."

Norwich Evening News reveals that the local council is also drawing up proposals to 'modernise' day services for people with learning disabilities, which could see the closure of some of the county's seven day centres.

Again the council claims it wants to provide more support based in the community, but day centre users and their carers have expressed concern over potential closures.

Elizabeth Marais MBE, who worked with people with mental health issues in Norfolk for 40 years, told the newspaper: "The fact there are even plans in place to move services from the centre is appalling and a terrible shock for anyone using them.

"The people who use the centres like to go and meet their friends and do activities that are catered to their needs. Some would struggle in normal society."

And while councils purport to want to provide better services within the community as an alternative, day centres can, for some, provide a stepping stone for people with learning disabilities to move on.

According to the Sentinel, the potential closure of day centres in Staffordshire has been on the agenda for over 18 months. But Geraldine Woolley told the newspaper that her daughter Elizabeth was able to move out of the family home seven years ago and live more independently due to meeting friends at the day service.

She said: "She chose it herself and with the friends she met at the centre. A bedroom became available. It's worked very well.

"It would not have been an option if the day service was not there. It would never have arisen. We didn't know anything about it, the decision was entirely hers.

"If the day services close then it is going to lead to people being totally isolated and we all know that kind of thing, taking away social structure, makes people ill. We are piling up problems for the future."

But if people involved in day centres make their views known, there is potential for councils to make concessions.

Cambridge Evening News reports that local authorities have been forced to change their plans to shut day centres for people with learning disabilities in the county after a mountain of opposition.

However, the day care system will still undergo a review, which will mean changes for people using day centres in St Neots, St Ives and Huntingdon.

Penny Butler, head of disabilities for the county council, said that some facilities would be moved to alternative venues, which were more "appropriate" and "disability compliant".

She added that users of day centres would be consulted and assessed individually.

"We are not proposing to stop services," said Ms Butler. "We are proposing to provide them in a different way."

With so many day centres set to close, it has yet to be seen how local authorities will manage to accommodate all users. Campaign groups have always said they support people with learning disabilities being more involved in the community, but not at the price of closing off day care to people that may really need it.