Charity given short reprieve from closure

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”.