News from the Friends of Dursley Training Unit

4th October 2011 Contact: Chris Pockett 07887 833391 or chrispockett@yahoo.co.uk

Outrage as charges for day care centre are increased by 158% Campaigners fighting to save the Dursley Training Unit (DTU), a day centre for vulnerable adults with learning disabilities and other lifelong illnesses, have reacted with outrage at Gloucestershire County Councils decision to raise charges to attend the centre by a staggering 158%, from 16.32 to 42.09 per day. The increase was revealed in an email to a parent of a DTU attendee, in which Tina Reid, the Councils Head of Care Provision clarified the new charges and stated, The council decided to implement these changes as users have their needs reassessed and allocated an individual budget. As part of the support planning process the full cost of services would be considered against the amount of individual budget that was available. Chris Pockett, spokesman for the Friends of Dursley Training Unit, says, This latest tactic employed by Gloucestershire County Council in its attempts to close the DTU is simply outrageous. To introduce such punitive increases for adults with learning and physical disabilities at any time would be unjustifiable, but at a time of economic austerity it is staggering in the extreme. It is quite clear that this move is designed to reduce numbers attending the DTU, so that the Council can justify its closure at a later date. He continues, This is the first that we have heard about these new charges. However, introduced on the back of the new policy of personal assessments and budgets, this simply reinforces what we have been saying all along - far from being about meeting the needs of the vulnerable, personal budgets are actually all about meeting the needs of Gloucestershire County Council. The vulnerable ARE being made to pay for cuts in the Countys budgets, and for the Council to argue otherwise is totally misleading and no longer credible. Ends