News from the Friends of Dursley Training Unit

24th December 2011 Contact: Chris Pockett 07887 833391 or chrispockett@yahoo.co.uk County Council backs down in dispute over funding for the disabled Families of users of a day centre for vulnerable adults with learning disabilities and other lifelong illnesses, are celebrating today after Gloucestershire County Council agreed to continue to fund attendance for disabled adults in supported living establishments. The decision followed the initiation of legal action by several families with children that attend the Dursley Training Unit (DTU), and will see funding continue until at least the end of January whilst the Council considers its legal position. The legal action launched by families was in response to the withdrawal of funding by the County Council. This led to supported living providers giving just 2 days notice to parents and carers that 22nd December would be the last day at the DTU for the 11 disabled adults affected by the funding cuts. Chris Pockett, spokesman for the Friends of Dursley Training Unit, says, The decision by Gloucestershire County Council to cut funding and stop these disabled adults enjoying this much valued community-based day centre, outraged not only the families of those involved but the wider Gloucestershire Community. Many of the adults have attended the DTU for in excess of 13 years, and some since the unit was first created almost 20 years ago. He continues, Families of those involved had no choice other than to launch legal action which they did reluctantly, but necessarily, to protect the rights of these adults, who are some of the most vulnerable and disabled in our Society. The County Council will respond to the legal challenges by 18th January, but will in any case fund attendance, without prejudice, until 31st January. He adds, It is now over 13 months since Gloucestershire County Council started the process to close the Dursley Training Unit, causing enormous stress and loss of dignity to users and their families over that period, and we feel that enough is enough. Rather than focusing its efforts on working with the Equality and Human Rights Commission on its processes, the County Council would be better served by putting people at the heart of policy making, and work on open and honest communication with carers of the disabled and those in their care. Pockett concludes, The Council has again delayed the decision on closure of the DTU until Spring 2012, and with further staffing changes, we now estimate savings by closing the unit to be no more than 30,000 per annum, giving no justification for closure. We call on the Council to end this agony for users and their families by making a commitment to retain the DTU, to develop the DTUs services further, and to actively promote its services to other disabled adults in the south of Gloucestershire. Ends