The Isle of Wight Council is seeking to offer support and reassurance to the families of 13 residents with learning disabilities who live at Ryde House – who it’s believed may receive notice from their private provider to leave.
The council – which provides funding to meet the residents’ care and support needs – has been trying to personally contact the affected families to explain the situation and what is being done on their behalf.
Ryde House, which is a specialist private provider for people with learning disabilities, has given 14 days’ notice to the council of its intention to give 7 days’ notice to the residents’ families.
A council spokesperson said:
“We have been involved in ongoing discussions with Ryde House to try to resolve issues surrounding the contract between us for a number of residents. These discussions are continuing and while they are taking place there has been no change in the care and support commissioned or the fees paid.
“We remain fully committed to these discussions and are very surprised and extremely concerned to have received the intention to serve notice with no prior indication. In our view the talks are still very active and we are working in good faith to resolve the issues and ensure the future health and care of the residents.
“Our absolute priority remains the long-term welfare and stability of these residents and we will be doing all we can on their behalf, together with ensuring that their care and support needs continue to be met.
“We have been endeavouring to personally contact the families to explain developments, and are also notifying the Care Quality Commission of developments.”
Article continues below this advertisement
Any families wishing to speak to adult social care can call Laura Gaudion, assistant director commissioning and partnerships, on 01983 821000, ext: 6337 or by emailing [email protected].
UPDATE @ 18:15 – In response to the Isle of Wight Council’s statement today, Ryde House Group have issued their own statement through solicitors Churchers of Ryde.
The statement reads:
“I am writing to confirm our position in relation to the care and support we currently provide to 12 people funded by the Isle of Wight Local Authority.
“The local authority have assessed the care needs of the people affected as being lower than the level we currently provide to then. As the levels of care and support we currently provide are required to maintain good outcomes for these members of our community, we have disagreed with the local authority’s assessments and after several months of discussions, we were informed that the local authority would not be changing their position.
“We are, and always have been, passionate about delivering exceellent quality care and support, and maintaining safety for the vulnerable people we support. Our aim is to ensure their well-being and best outcomes are maintained. We could not however continued to provide this standard of care and support if we were to agree to the assessments by the Local Authority. It is therefore, with great reluctance and regret, that we have informed the IW LA of our intent to give formal notice, in accordance with the terms of the Local Authority’s contract.
“We are, and always have been, passionate about delivering excellent quality care and support, and maintaining safety for the vulnerable people we support. Our aim is to ensure their well-being and support if we were to agree to the assessments by the local authority. It is therefore, with great reluctance and regret, that we have informed the IW LA of our intent to give formal notice, in accordance with the terms of the Local Authority’s contract.
“Many months of time and effort on both sides have gone in to trying to avoid this situation, but unfortunately we are left with limited options if we disagree on the level of care a person requires to lead as happy and normal a life as possible.
“We have made our position clear to the Local Authority that the people affected by this notice do not need to move out and can continue to live with us indefinitely as long as we are able to agree the correct care levels to ensure that we can maintain their safety and well-being”.
What is the reason behind this, sounds to me like we are only getting a small part of the story as always.
Perhaps this could be updated with Ryde House Group’s statement so people have the perspective of both sides?
Yes, the Ryde House Group website statement adds much to balance this story.
Seems this issue has been going on for a while.
The authority’s are cutting care down so that residents cannot stay in Ryde house residents have had one to one care for years and now they say they don’t need it
Perhaps the Council simply doesn’t have enough money / income to meet everyone’s needs and they are trying to balance to books in the fairest way possible…? You can do a lot for the few or the same for the many…
Yet they are quick enough giving themselves pay rises.
if you look through the councils expenditure for august 2019, you will see numerous entries for a variety of things, such as car hire, hotel accommodation, advertising on facebook, even plane tickets on flybe. They spent out thousands on solent and wightline cruises – what for I guess I will never know.
That is just august 2019.
Having said that, you look at the massive amounts of council tax payers money already going into child services, adult services and care services. They aren’t exactly being deprived of cash.
Ryde House are looking to increase their revenue, whilst the council must cut back. These care industries will happily suck every penny a council has, given the chance and they must be reigned in, where necessary. We should also keep the council in check, so they don’t fritter our money away on vanity projects and self indulgence.
Care companies are already reined in. Just to remind everyone that support workers who have to take on more and more responsibility, work long and rubbish hours, no sick pay, no bonuses ever and not even recognised as professionals despite our training and experience are still paid less then supermarket shelf stickers!!
The problem is the councillors couldn’t give two hoots. As long as they get to keep a min of 2 houses and oh yes local state pays for first household. Plus meals and taxis and redspottedhanky.com. So vulnerable people are at the bottom of the list.
It’s about money everything’s about money