Despite significant local opposition, Birmingham Labour have in today’s cabinet meeting confirmed their intention to close almost half of the City’s day care centres.
Cllr Matt Bennett (Con, Edgbaston), Shadow Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care, said:
Birmingham Labour have been trying to close Day Centres in the City since 2016, a move thwarted and delayed first by legal challenge and then by the covid pandemic.
Since then, unable to do what they wanted, they have instead been overseeing a period of managed decline, refusing to invest in the centres and discouraging attendance to create the conditions where they could justify their closure. Now Labour's own disastrous handling of the city's finances have given them a golden opportunity to justify closing these much-loved facilities.
Cllr Bennett continued:
They have ignored the strength of feeling of hundreds of users and carers and have run a perfunctory, insulting consultation, leaving day centre users with very little confidence they have been listened to. The frustration these people feel has been evident in both private conversations and public meetings.
Cllr Deirdre Alden (Con, Edgbaston), Shadow Cabinet Member for Transformation, Governance and HR, said:
The experience of users at Birmingham-run day centres tells us that they gain something that they would not have experienced if they hadn’t been involved in the day centre. These centres are a life-enriching gateway to to companionship, activities, the outside world, practical support and information. The closure of almost half of the City’s centres will put these opportunities out of reach for many current and potential service users.
Cllr Alden continued:
That’s why we’ve requested this decision is called in to the Health & Social Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee. We’ll continue to fight to keep these day centres open and call on the committee to tell the Labour Administration it needs to change course and fast!
