Day Centre Provision during the Pandemic- how can we challenge LA to escalate plan to reopen?

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RhondaR

I have a leaning disabled younger sister who is cared for by my family. Pre-pandemic she attended a day centre 5 days a week which she loved.. Her day centre is still closed and there are no signs of a re-opening date yet. Are we in the minority or is this experience shared by other members of the group? We’ve engaged unsuccessfully with the local authority who appear to be taking no responsibility for the lack of care provision or holding the care provider to account. 

Can anyone share any thoughts on how we might be able to challenge the local authority / care provider to escalate the plan to re-open? This whole situation is having a really negative impact on my sister’s wellbeing, so we’re desperate to resolve. Thank you very much for reading this post and for any help that you’re able to provide.

craftyarts

Good evening RhondaR your sister must feel extremely isolated and your family in need of some well earned daily respite as things cant be easy for all of you confined for so many months together. In many wsys everyone's independence has been curtailed . 
I can understand the caution of the Local Authority as the last thing they want is to put anyone at risk until all of their staff members are absolutely aware of the new health and safety procedures because the last thing they want is to put any staff or service user at risk who are more vunerable than the rest of the community.  Having said that personally send a letter to your LA to your MP and to the media . A better route is try to contact other setvice users and put pressure on as a group . 
I am not sure of the size of the establishment nor the amount of people that are offered a service each day , and then their is the issue of social distancing.  This may cause huge issues and they may be forced to reduce service users days to the service which I am sure they will hate to have to implement. Also they need to know who is vaccinated who is not and look at individusl health needs to keep everyone as safe as is possible. They could be considering  looking at satellite units which are smaller in number but offer the same staff ratio. Or even 1 to 1 or 2to 1 care in the community . This virus possibly is making the LA look at the care they provide in a totally different way which is enriching as the old service or possibly better . 
Never be afraid of giving suggestions of ways forward .
We have also had our lockdown extended and obviously thst will delay things . It is important to stress to your sister we are all under restrictions and it is not just her penalised , everyone is. 
However it never hurts to group together with other service users and those who provide their care as they are often forgotten in this equation. 
Quite often service users and their carers can look at a situation with fresh eyes and help to modify and adapt services that are on offer and become better for everyone .
Possibly extended opening hours and staggered shifts is another option ? 
I apologies if I sound like I am on the LA side but I used to write policy documents for day centres and it is a huge responsibility getting it right for everyone. However service users can and should be instrumental in the way forward .
I hope this gave you some insight of what may be going on behind the scenes although the lack of respite maybe hard to come to terms with.  If you can find these other service users maybe arrage a small picnic in the park ?