Save Orchard Close Respite Unit, Hayling Island
Save Orchard Close Respite Unit, Hayling Island
Who are we?
We're a group of parents and carers of service users at Orchard Close, a 13 bed respite centre for adults with learning disabilities on Hayling Island, which Hampshire County Council is proposing to shut down.
The proposed closure will have a huge impact on over 140 service users and more particularly their parents and carers who rely on this service as their primary means of respite. Please support our legal challenge by contributing now and most importantly sharing this page with your friend, family and on social media.
We are doing this because over 140 adults with learning disabilities love this place and the service it provides. Orchard Close provides respite in a more homely setting than the newer more clinical buildings and is a far more appropriate facility for many of those that use it.
Orchard Close itself is owned by a charitable trust having been left to the County Council and there is a covenant on the land stating it must be used for services for people with learning disabilities.
However, Hampshire County Council are the sole trustee of this trust. As yet it is not known what will happen to the land if the unit closes but it would appear HCC would seek to try and sell it.
Hampshire County Council believe they would see a £600,000 per year saving from closing Orchard Close and are looking at this proposal as a means to meet savings targets within the Council's Adults' Health and Care Budget.
The reality though is that this is a very short-sighted approach: only a dozen of the current 140+ users need to go into full residential care as a result of their carer going into crisis and the proposed saving is lost.
In actual fact carers save the local authority much much more than that every year so supporting them with appropriate respite is not just good sense but is also a legal requirement under the Carers Act 2014.
How much are we raising and why?
We are crowdfunding for initial funds to investigate the merits of a judicial review, instruct counsel, enter into pre-action correspondence with Hampshire County Council, and advise on the merits of issuing proceedings in the High Court.
Orchard Close represents a very unique jewel in the crown in terms of Hampshire's in-house respite service.
If the county council continue with their very short-sighted proposal to close this jewel will be lost forever and that should not be allowed to happen.
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