Wirral care service under fire for planning to close two centres

A Wirral care service has been slated for plans to cut two of its centres.

Wirral Evolutions, a company in which Wirral Council is the sole shareholder, is planning to close two day centres, Highcroft in Bebington and Cambridge Road in New Brighton, as it needs to save £500,000 to meet its budget.

George Lamb, 28, whose nephew Kieran Kneen, 21, is disabled and goes to Highcroft five days per week, is running a petition to save the day centre which has attracted 1,065 signatures.

Speaking at last night's meeting of Wirral Council's adult social care and public health committee, Mr Lamb said: "The aim of our petition is simple, to keep Highcroft day centre and all other day centres governed by Wirral Evolutions open.

"These day centres play a vital part in the lives of the vulnerable people who use them. They provide routine and security and most importantly the opportunity to socialise."

He added: "The centres also provide their families with much needed respite, something they would otherwise not have."

David Jones, branch secretary for Wirral Unison, said the plans will create a two-tier workforce in which between 32 and 41 of the 44 service coordinators face cuts of £2,500, or 11%, to their pay.

Mr Jones added that the proposals would lead to a 10% reduction in care support hours and more than 70 out of 159 staff have applied for EVR (early voluntary retirement) and 89% believe the service should be brought in-house and run directly by Wirral Council, instead of being managed by Wirral Evolutions.

The branch secretary continued: "Our members can be forgiven, based on the information provided, for thinking this is less about modernisation and more about pay cuts for care workers and cramming six centres worth of people into four centres."

He added: "I would ask you at the earliest opportunity to give serious consideration to bringing the service back in-house before these poorly thought out, in our opinion, proposals are implemented."

In total, the plan to save £500,000 from Wirral Evolutions' budget will come from operational staff (30.36%), corporate services (37.09%) and locations (such as centres, 32.46%).

Jean Stephens, managing director of Wirral Evolutions, said the company was having to modernise, with an organisational restructure and a plan to "consolidate" the number of centres the company had.

Ms Stephens said the plans provided greater social benefits to service users and a leaner, more modern workforce, which will see a reduction in management posts.

However, Pensby and Thingwall Conservative councillor Ivan Camphor said the plans would have a "significant impact" on those who use the services, as well as staff members.

Graham Hodkinson, Wirral Council's director of adult's care, said Wirral Evolutions was set up to allow the service to change its remit and expand.

He added that the council did have oversight of it through the shareholder board and that the service's financial problems had a long history, it was not a new scenario.

Given the concerns raised, Eastham Liberal Democrat councillor Phil Gilchrist asked Wirral Evolutions to return to the next meeting, on July 29, with further details of how its plans would impact on service users and staff.

The committee passed his motion unanimously.