Children's respite care closure 'devastating'

Gemma Wilkinson said the staff at Monksfield House were "absolutely amazing" with her daughter Sarah

The "devastating" closure of a children's respite care service has left a mother fearing it could take a year to find a replacement facility for her and her daughter.

Gemma Wilkinson said 12-year-old Sarah, who has severe mental and physical disabilities, had "absolutely loved" attending Monksfield House in Hexham, Northumberland, every weekend.

But the charity Action For Children has said it was closing its short break service because of difficulties recruiting and retaining staff.

Northumberland County Council, who had referred families to the charity, said it was "working on personalised plans of support with those who have been affected".

For more than 20 years, staff at Monksfield would take disabled children for days out and overnight stays to provide respite for their families and help the youngsters experience new activities and make friends.

Action For Children said it was closing the service from September, but Miss Wilkinson said it was shut at the end of July.

"The staff there were absolutely amazing with her," she said.

"They would do her hair, paint her nails, them sort of things."

'Such hard work'

Sarah was born with atypical Rett syndrome, a rare genetic neurological disorder which affects her speech and limits her movement.

Ms Wilkinson has three more of her children living at home and said the help from Monksfield had been "extremely valuable".

Sarah used to be collected from her school in Ashington on a Friday and went to Monksfield for the weekend, before being taken back to school on Monday morning.

Ms Wilkinson said: "It's such hard work, you don't know how hard it is when you've got a child with special needs."

She thinks the impact on her daughter will be "devastating" because Sarah was "not going to be able to experience the things she was experiencing, and go out and do things".

Ms Wilkinson was told it could take a year to get Sarah a place at a replacement service and could be with an operator based an hour away.

Action For Children said the residential children's home, also at Monksfield, was unaffected and would remain open.

It would also run a partial short break service through the summer holidays.

The Conservative-led local authority added it was working with the charity to "continue to review options".