Day Centre Services

[mark_210612]

Hi everyone. How would I start a petition to get my Local Authority to re-open our son's day centre service?
I understand the rational why the service had to be closed, but they only plan on re-opening for a fraction of the the time they used to be open, about an 80% reduction in service. Thanks in advance.

[Melly1]

Hi Mark,
I was waiting to hear that local authorities would try to use Covid to scale down day support services. I'm lucky that S goes to an independent service at his college, those in local authority day services have not been back since March 2020.

Firstly, check this is a permanent thing they are intending and not just a phased reopening. You have two routes to go in fighting this - on a family level you can argue that your son has been assessed as needing X amount of days at a day service and if his current day service isn't able to meet his assessed need - social care need to source him a new placement (however, understandably, you and he, are unlikely to want a different day service.) If this is the case then you could start a petition. Search online for your council guidelines on petitions and there will be criteria to be met if the council are to accept your petition. It can be a paper based one that you get people to sign, although these days they are often online as well e.g through change.org or 38degrees. Social media is a good way to promote the petition - through family and friends but also by setting up Facebook page etc with the name of the day centre and so on.

Melly1