Hastings Road Day Centre consultation

Overview

Leicester City Council runs a specialist day service for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Hastings Road Day Centre was opened in 2005 and operates Monday to Friday from 8.30am until 5pm.

This service currently supports 21 people but there are spaces for up to 30 people to attend. In recent years, the numbers attending have been falling and the service has not had a new referral since 2016.

During a review of our day care services earlier in 2022, we held detailed discussions with people who receive day services both at Hastings Road and elsewhere in the community. People told us they wanted flexible, community-based support that offers opportunities for social and organised activities including leisure, entertainment, education and employment. The times that services are available were also important. 

We think the decline in people wanting to attend Hastings Road is because people are choosing other, more flexible, options that better meet their wider needs, such as the need for families to work or have support at the weekends. The building-based offer at Hastings Road restricts these sorts of opportunities for people with more complex needs. 
 

Why your views matter

We think it is important that everyone we support has access to the widest possible range of activities that best meet their needs and aspirations.
  
Given that Hastings Road is limited in what it can offer people, we are proposing to stop services at that location and help people choose suitable alternatives elsewhere. 

We work with recognised providers who specialise in day services for people with complex needs. They offer services that are more flexible than the service the council can provide at Hastings Road. This means that people can continue to have a service that supports them, but it will be more forward thinking in terms of the activities and opportunities on offer. 

Community providers offer opportunities that people are familiar with and which they enjoy doing, alongside new opportunities and activities they might like to try: for example, bowling, swimming or going to a football match.

We recognise that this will be a difficult and stressful time for people and their families so would take care to introduce people to a new service at a new location. 
 

What happens next

We will tell you what people said and what has been decided on the council’s consultation web pages in June 2023.