The hugely popular Independent Living Centre, run by local charity People Matter IW, is to close at the end of March due to a lack of funding, with the loss of 3 jobs.
The Centre, which is based on the Riverway Industrial Estate, has been supporting people of all ages who want to continue to live independently; providing them with a detailed assessment of their needs and the opportunity to discuss, view, and try a range of quality equipment, aids, and adaptations for daily living. This includes larger items of furniture, such as beds and chairs, to smaller, adapted handheld items such as crockery and cutlery.
The facility is set up with bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, and lounge areas so people visiting the centre could view the items in realistic settings and test equipment on a try-before-you-buy basis. Crucially, the centre has no commercial interests and has been able to offer impartial advice to people before they purchase goods elsewhere.
Since it opened in 2012, originally at Downside, the centre has supported over 30,000 people – empowering and enabling many to continue to live independently at home for longer without the need for support from statutory services. It has also helped remove some of the barriers for disabled people offering them more independence, choice, and control.
The service was originally established by the charity in conjunction with the Isle of Wight Council to address identified gaps in services. It has been delivered thanks to funding from ‘The Better Care Fund’ however, that funding is no longer available and – despite considerable efforts to find other sources of income – alternative funding has not been identified.
Terri Baker, Manager of People Matter IW, has said:
“This has been an extremely difficult decision to make and not one that we have made lightly. The Centre has been an important lifeline to enable people to stay safe and live independently at home for longer and we are very proud of the work we have done here to make a difference to thousands of people’s lives and extremely grateful to those colleagues who have supported the delivery of this vital service.
“We know just how much of a loss this will be to the local community, but without the funding, we simply have no option but to close the centre at the end of March.
Article continues below this advertisement “However, we would like to reassure people that we will be continuing to provide the same high quality, impartial advice, information and guidance over the phone to those who need our support.”
Other services offered by People Matter IW, which is also the User-Led Organisation for the Isle of Wight, are unaffected. These include it’s Find your Care service, ‘We Stand Together’, Learning Disability Support Centre, Personal Assistant Recruitment and Employment Service (PARES) and Independent Advocacy, as well as its user-led involvement groups like the Learning Disabilities Partnership Group, Autism Inclusion Matters (AIM), Carers Group, and its Long-term Conditions focus group.
The Independent Living Centre will continue to be open to the public, by appointment only, until 16:00 on Thursday 30th March. The charity will then continue to provide its other services from its base in Bernard Way, including its independent living telephone advice and support.
In light of the changes, from 1st April the centre will also be renamed ‘The Independent Support Centre’. It is hoped, in time, that the charity will be able to repurpose the centre to continue to support its many clients across the Island.
So people in genuine need won’t be helped due to withdrawal of council funding but the council is perfectly happy to squander hundreds of thousands of pounds on the farce of a floating bridge as well as eye watering amounts of money on their gyms.
No money to be made out of the needy and vulnerable so it’s not a council priority.
At least I can walk across their beautiful car park now without being shouted at!
This service has been invaluable to us personally over the past few years and the staff are fantastic people too. So kind and genuinely willing to help it’s a terrible shame it’s closing. It’s unbelievable how other less deserving things get funding, so many of these lifeline charities are closing down it’s all wrong?
Who makes these choices and decisions?
Old and vulnerable haven’t got much of a voice so the Council feel they can ignore them without being noticed. Such a shame.
So those in need to aids to help them remain independent of the Care Home system will now ending up needing care. Doesn’t make sense this isn’t a money saving tactic quite the opposite if you think about it. The Island apparently has a high number of elderly disabled persons compared to other counties, so this situation of closing a valuable “first call” site will have repercussions within the Council and NHS. Must be part of the governments big plan – the one we know nothing about until it happens and we need it only to find out we can’t have it.