Lockdown: Families 'frustrated' over day centre closures

Paul Ridley and his son Keith had relied on day centres to give the family respite

Families have said they are frustrated day centres for disabled people have been unable to reopen despite further easing of lockdown restrictions.

Paul Ridley from Milton Keynes, said he had to be on "24/7 standby" to care for son Keith, who has severe autism.

Another family said their daughter had been missing out on valuable chances to socialise.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it would be issuing guidance on reopening centres soon.

Mr Ridley said Keith, who is non-verbal and also has epilepsy, had very limited self-help skills and "erratic sleep patterns".

Normally, he would go to a day centre four days a week, stay overnight once a week, and for a weekend every four weeks.

"We can recharge our batteries and spend time with our daughter," Mr Ridley said.

Mr Ridley said his son Keith had hugely benefited from the visits

However, since his centre closed, Mr Ridley said the family has had to sleep with "one eye open".

They have not been able to bring in any help, as people coming into their home can upset Keith.

"When he is at day care, my wife and I take it in turns to sleep at night and then catch up during the day but at the moment we can't," he said.

"Some days are better than others. Some days it is just like 'oh please', we want to catch up on sleep, it can be tiring, we want to be able to do stuff, but we get through it.

"We are tough cookies, we have to be, but if we had something to look forward to... but we haven't got that.

"It is weird seeing everything open and I can't go walking down the road with my wife on our own. They are opening theme parks and pubs, this that and the other, but Keith won't go in, we're still on lockdown."

Karen Corrigan, from Quinton in Birmingham, said daughter Beth had been missing out on opportunities to socialise without daily visits to the day centre - an "integral part" of the 23-year-old's life.

Beth has dyspraxia, dyslexia and severe learning difficulties and cannot read.

Mrs Corrigan and her husband Frank have both been shielding during the pandemic, and they said the lack of services had been difficult for Beth.

Beth Fletcher is "bored stiff" without her regular visits to the day centre, her mother said

"We try to explain, but she has limited understanding of what is going on," she said.

"We have tried to keep her as busy as we can, but it is not the same her mingling with all her friends on a day-to-day basis."

Mrs Corrigan said day centres, such as the one attended by her daughter, also offered respite to families caring for elderly or disabled people.

"I see everything else reopening, pubs, whatever it might be, but why has nothing been said to these people?" she asked.

Any decision to reopen day centres would rest with local councils, but the Department of Health and Social Care said it would be working with them and offering some guidance on safe ways to do so.

Decisions on when to reopen should be made on a local basis and be subject to appropriate risk assessments, it said.

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A spokesman for Milton Keynes Council said: "The national restrictions imposed due to Covid-19 are particularly difficult for vulnerable people, their families and carers.

"Our first priority is protecting our most vulnerable residents. We are constantly reviewing our services to ensure we care for people in line with national guidance."

While Birmingham City Council said: "We understand people's wish to return to some sort of normality and we are looking at how best to support people who use these services as the lockdown continues to ease.

"However, this is a highly vulnerable group of people and we need to be extremely careful. As we are sure our residents would expect, we have the health and wellbeing of our citizens, their carers and staff teams at the forefront of our decision-making.

"We await guidance from the DHSC on this important issue."