Kilsyth respite care home under review

This comes after the News & Chronicle understands North Lanarkshire Council decided it no longer wishes to pay to use the High Barrwood facility.

The council is thought to have concerns about the suitability of the five-bedroomed house and the facilities it can offer.

Instead it would rather point people towards using the PHEW Centre in Motherwell.

The council pays around £1300 for a week’s respite care at High Barrwood, which would lose an estimated 40% of its budget if it no longer takes in North Lanarkshire clients.

ENABLE confirmed the review, but stopped short of confirming the reason behind it.

A spokesperson said: “ENABLE Scotland is committed to providing excellent quality, personalised social care support for people who have a learning disability and their families, and this includes facilitating short breaks.

“To ensure that we can continue to support people to have choice and control around how they choose to enjoy a break, we are undertaking a review of the service at High Barrwood.

“We are engaging with staff and customers as part of the review, and will be actively continuing to keep them updated. We remain open for bookings.”

The situation came to light after Margaret McGill from Chapelhall tried to book a week’s respite for her son John for later in the year.

She was told after August the council would no longer be making bookings with High Barrwood, but John could go to PHEW.

Margaret said: “John has been going to High Barrwood for 15 years and calls it is holiday home, he looks forward to his weeks there.

“He has built up such a relationship with the staff that when my husband, and his dad, died last year he phoned them just to talk about things and they were kind enough to give him their time.

“I know the house could do with some money spent on it, for example it definitely does need a new kitchen, but all the clients I know enjoy their time there.

“With disabled people you have to be careful not to disturb their routine so while the PHEW centre may in many ways be a better facility it isn’t going to be right for everyone.

“I am hoping the council will reconsider its decision and support High Barrwood to make it better, not cut a large percentage of its budget which will presumably make it very difficult for it to continue.”

A spokesperson for Health & Social Care North Lanarkshire responded: “Residential respite is an important element of support for people with disabilities and family members within North Lanarkshire.

“In recent years, there has been a reduction in the use of residential respite as more people use individual resources available through self-directed support packages.

“We regularly review the use and suitability of all our providers to ensure the right level of support is available for each individual and their families.

“We will continue to work with ENABLE Scotland and other partners to provide the most appropriate levels of care for our service users.”