News

Lambeth SHAD, a charity providing 24-hour support and housing assistance for people with disabilities, has been given a four-week reprieve from closure, writes Lauren Revans.

In September last year, Lambeth council rejected the charity’s request for a 24 per cent increase in fee levels for their clients, giving the charity three-month’s notice and an agreement to pay the higher rate for that period of time "in order to support them through the wind-down period".

Lambeth SHAD was due to have ceased providing care by this week, but the deadline has now been extended to the end of February to allow the council time to complete its clients’ alternative care plans.

A council spokesperson also confirmed it had agreed to look at a new business plan drawn up by the charity.

Charity director Isabelle Clement told Community Care that all six clients – five of whom were Lambeth residents – were opposed to the change, and that doubts about SHAD’s relevance had been disproved by independent research carried out last year.

The council claimed SHAD had failed to respond both to the changes in the care market in recent years and to concerns about its financial viability, choosing instead to increase the level and range of care for users "beyond the agreed care plans and without prior agreement from the council or any other funder to meet the costs".

But Clement said SHAD was forced to subsidise care packages because their clients "were not being supported enough in terms of their other needs".