Borough's Mental Health Services Face Cuts
Number of accommodation support centres in Wandsworth to be reduced
Picture: Thames Reach
Home support services for people with mental health needs could be cut as part of plans to change how housing support is provided in Wandsworth.
The proposal has prompted fears that people will be left to get worse before receiving any help.
The borough currently offers five homes providing a mixture of high and medium support, but this could be reduced to three as part of a reconfiguration of the current service when it goes out to be re-tendered.
The current service is provided by Thames Reach, but it has decided to withdraw from the contract from 31 March, 2020.
Speaking at the Adult Care and Overview and Scrutiny Committee last week (16 September) Dr Richard Wiles, Head of Commissioning for Public Health, Wellbeing and Service Development at Wandsworth Council, said the new provider should reconfigure the current service within the first year of the contract to concentrate provision in a smaller number of accommodation units.
This would mean decommissioning medium support level services at Bassingham Road and Old Hospital Close, and turning Dafforne Road into a high support service.
Cllr Kate Forbes said she was concerned about the reduction to the service, and the mixed make-up of needs.
She commented, “Are we going to get to a position where we are maybe waiting for people to get worse in order to hit the waiting list to use these provisions because the medium support level units aren’t there anymore?” she said.
Dr Wiles said that by making Dafforne Road a high support service, the weekly support hours provided across the sites would remain the same, despite the reduction in the number of units.
He added that the move was needed because the demand for lower support services in premises with shared facilities was limited, and had led to vacancies in the service which have taken a long time to fill.
He said people with lower support needs preferred ‘floating support’ that is not linked to their accommodation, but that still allows them to meet with someone a few hours a week for help with issues such as budgeting, life skills, and drug and alcohol misuse
“We have found that in low support housing the hours are not significantly greater than those in floating support,” he said.
The Executive this Monday (23 September) approved the motion for tendering supported housing provision for a three year contract and supported the recommendations suggested.
Sian Bayley - Local Democracy Reporter
September 25, 2019