Pandemic forced council to 'hit the accelerator' on plans to reform learning disability provision, cabinet member says

In February, the authority launched a consultation to help review its service for the 500 people it looks after, to maximise their employment and social opportunities.

Health and social care portfolio holder Andy Burford told the health scrutiny committee Covid-19 has “tested our personalised approach to its limits”.

He said he had seen some examples of staff and service users adapting and accepting life under restrictions, but said the changes to routines were also causing “distress” for some.

He was speaking after a presentation by community and social work service delivery manager Amardeep Grewal about support for people with autism and learning disabilities.

Committee chairman Derek White said: “Knowing the nature of autism and experiencing it in several people, the biggest problem, I’ve been told, is basically the upset in the routines they have. It causes extreme stress in some areas.”

Ms Grewal said: “I think people’s resilience has absolutely been amazing and quite humbling in some ways for us.

“I think families, individuals, have really taught us the resilience that they have. We also need to make sure we’re responding to the changes in their circumstances quickly, able to not get caught up in our own bureaucracy and doing the right thing at the right time for people.”

She said the “autism hub” met every week and aimed co-ordinate services.

Cllr White said: “I think the most important thing is getting information to the people as quickly as possible, so they can process that. If they can accept it, it doesn’t come as a surprise and doesn’t upset.”

Cllr Burford said: “Before the pandemic we launched this consultation, or engagement, as we preferred to call it, about future learning disabilities, with the idea that we could do better in terms of personalising delivery, moving people on where we could to more contact and stimulation from their own communities and, where we could, to jobs, et cetera.

“We wanted to take that at the right pace. You couldn’t rush people and their carers into situations they were uncomfortable with. They had to see it was a benefit to be moved on.

“Covid has just changed all that. It’s actually pressed the accelerator down hard because the first thing that happened was we had to close the day centres. We had no choice about that at the start of the pandemic.

“That meant, immediately, we had to change our way of working. It has tested our personalised approach to the limits in terms of what we can manage.

“I’ve personally seen some really good individual stories that have come out of this where people with learning disabilities and their carers are really positive about what we have had to do. They have realised that there are better alternatives for them than just attending the day centre.

“The bad news is that we’ve also got situations where people have been put under enormous stress because they haven’t got that routine.

“Make no mistake, there is distress out there, and no matter how good our service or could be, it’s a very trying situation for many individuals.”