Council Vote To Close Ealing Respite Home

Despite petition of 5000+ Heller House will shut

A respite home in Ealing for young people with special needs is to close.

Despite strong opposition and a petition signed by more than 5,000 people, Ealing Council has voted to shut Heller House.

Councillor David Millican, Conservative Spokesman on Children's Services said:

"I am very disappointed that the Labour Council have not listened to the 5,000 people who signed the petition proposing a realistic third option for Heller House.

"Heller House provides invaluable respite care for families with young people with additional needs.  Parents want the facility to remain in the borough of Ealing and the Council have specifically said that they cannot guarantee that.
"It is a crying shame that the council will not keep Heller House open while they look at alternative realistic options.''

Campaigner Siobhan Bryar said:

'' We were very disappointed that Ealing Cabinet decided to close Heller House on the basis of totally inaccurate numbers and in advance of finding the real numbers of current respite need, future respite need and the realistic costs involved to our borough for out of borough provision.

''With already over 5,100 signatures on the petition we feel that Ealing residents who have already signed will be extremely upset that their voices have been totally ignored, and that more residents will want to have their say now.We will continue to fight this decision which has been made in ignorance and, as council tax payers have grave concerns as to how our Council is spending our money.We will however work with the Council as agreed last night on the third option as part of a feasability study. If they see sense and work honestly and transparently with us we hope and pray that Ealing will have a new state of the art respite centre in the near future. Otherwise we will be dependent on neighbouring boroughs forever - a sad state of affairs for the third largest borough in London and the poor families with disabled and challenging children who live here.''

Councillor Binda Rai, cabinet member for children and young people said: “I know how important the service is to families who currently use Heller House and there is no question that we will stop providing respite care. But as it is, the Heller House building is not suitable for the complex needs of disabled children.

''We want to ensure that families have access to the highest possible quality of care in a suitable environment. We will now look in detail at proposals received during the consultation before making a final decision about the future use of the Heller House site. We will also look at the feasibility of developing a dedicated overnight respite service for 16 to 25 year olds in the borough.''

A feasibility study of options for the site will now be carried out and a report with recommendations will go back to Cabinet.

Ealing council say it 'will continue to meet its statutory obligation to provide respite care to eligible families by supporting individual choice and where required commissioning packages of care from respite providers in Ealing and neighbouring boroughs.'

18th February 2016