Fears care centre will close without fresh funding

Staff from Endike Community Care staged a protest with supporters outside the Guildhall in Hull

A day-care centre for the elderly could close down unless Hull City Council reinstates funding, staff have claimed.

Endike Community Care received just short of £5,000 a month from the council until September last year, when the agreement came to an end, manager Eileen Wright said.

Now, she fears that she will only be able to keep the centre running for another two to three months.

The council said it was continuing to support the centre and was increasing the number of people being placed there for day care.

"The people need the centre. Many of our clients have got some form of dementia or Alzheimer's. If they were uprooted to anywhere else they would find it so difficult," Ms Wright said.

"The last thing we want is to close our doors... because so many people rely on us."

The centre, in Ashton Close, north Hull, could not afford any "luxuries" and often relied on "the goodwill of people", she added.

'It's devastating'

Anne Hall, 69, has been attending the centre for more than a year, after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in June 2022.

Her daughter, Jo Ashbridge, a dance artist from Hull, said the centre had been a "godsend" for her mother, who had been left isolated following the death of her husband four weeks after her diagnosis.

"It's just devastating. She's got no remaining friends or family really, apart from me," Ms Ashbridge added. "She'll be completely isolated if this happens."

Jo Ashbridge, right, with her mother Anne Hall, for whom the centre is "a godsend"

Hull City Council said Endike Community Care had received a time-limited grant from the authority, which ended in September 2023.

The council currently commissioned 16 organisations to provide adult social care and was "not legally allowed to subsidise one provider over and above another", a spokesperson said.

It had been working with Endike for "many months", with support and "advice on how the organisation can become more sustainable".

This support included increasing the number of individuals being placed there for day care. From 1 July, this number would rise from six to 10.

"Our number one priority, as always, is ensuring we do our best for people who need care in Hull," the spokesperson added.

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