Interim funding for day care centres facing cuts to be announced soon

The popular Autumn Centre in Corby, which has a packed programme of life enhancing activities for the over 50s is one of the organisations due to lose its grant.

12 Northamptonshire organisations who help the county’s most vulnerable will be losing a collective £1.6m sum in March when a three-year social wellbeing grant comes to an end.

The charities have now been told they will receive interim one-year funding, although are still waiting for figures about how much they will receive.

Councillor Ian Morris, who holds the adult social care brief, said: “I would agree with the argument that if day centre services are lost then there is a bigger cost down the line. We are more than keen to sort something so that we don’t lose these services but there are financial pressures on our services.

“I would like to see the interim funding as near to 100 percent of the current funding as we can get it. I will try and make sure there is not a radical cut in funding. “

Cllr Morris said Director of Public Health Lucy Wightman and her team were working hard to find the funds out of the public health grant. Before Lucy Wightman took over the grant had been used non-compliantly and Public Health England had become involved.

However the Conservative councillor ruled out the funds coming from the much larger adult social care budget.

The interim funding will need to be agreed by the council’s cabinet. The organisations had been led to believe this would be agreed at next week’s cabinet but it is not on the agenda.

Cllr Morris said: “We had to push that to December as it as just too tight to get the information together in time. We are very mindful that the providers need some assurance soon and we have made a commitment to get some information to them before the December budget meeting.”

The charities losing their funding are: Wellingborough Afro-Caribbean Association, Serve, Autumn Centre, Mayday Trust, Midland Heart, Marlow House, Catch 22, Glamis Hall, Age UK, Delos (Creative Support), Dostiyo Asian Women’s and Girls Association, NAASH.

The contract was for day centre services for the over 65s to help combat social isolation and loneliness and also for helping those who were homeless with wrap-around care once they had been accommodated.

There has been an outcry about the cuts as it follows a reduction of funding over several years. Age UK has said the grant loss could force it to close some centres.