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Grove House Petition

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8 November 2015

By Alex Khalil

Grove house, located in Saltwell, provides specialist care for disabled children, but could face closure in the wake of council cuts.

Families are desperately urging Gateshead council not to close a disabled children’s home, after the authority has revealed it needs to make an estimated £50m saving due to government cuts. These will be on top of the £110m worth of cutbacks made since 2010.

Grove House in Saltwell, Gateshead, offers specialist short residential breaks for disabled young children between the ages of 8 and 18.

But under the recent budget constraints, the council has issued warnings that the home could face closure.

In an emotionally charged council meeting to discuss the home’s potential closure, councillors fought back tears as service users told how the home helps their families.

These include Melanie Cornwell, 44, and her 16-year-old son Nicholas, who suffers from cerebral palsy and depends upon Grove House for care.

She said: “Nicholas started going to Grove House when he was eight. The staff are amazing, it is a home from home and gives us peace of mind.

“We hand him over knowing he will be absolutely fine and well cared for. Nicholas only has 18 months left at Grove House and it isn’t him we’re fighting for.”

“We’re fighting for people who are not even born yet who will need a service like this.

“Gateshead Council should be proud of what they have in Grove House.”

If Grove house were to close its doors, the council say the service would be moved out of the borough or parents would be handed individual budgets to find a service elsewhere. The service has helped many families in the area, and given them some respite and assurance that there is help readily available for their disabled children. But campaigners say there is no alternative in the area and it could lead to inferior care for money, and the council would save £280,000 all together.

Council leader Mick Henry said: “We are sympathetic and very upset to have to even consider such matters.”

“We need to find new ways of working to find anything at all we can do to help Grove House and the other very difficult decisions that will affect vulnerable people.

“Grove House is in my ward; I have the utmost respect for it but that’s the reality where we are and this is what it is coming to thanks to government cuts.”

While the council may be ‘sympathetic’, we cannot imagine how horrible it must be to lose something as important as the care that Grove House provides for young disabled children and teenagers.

A petition against the proposed closure has been launched and can be found at www.change.org/p/councillor-henry-gateshead-council-leader-save-grove-house

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