Council leaders have been urged to postpone a decision on changing Southampton’s residential overnight respite provision for adults with learning disabilities.

Members of the city council’s overview and scrutiny management committee made the recommendation after hearing concerns from existing external providers and the families of service users.

At present there are three sites delivering overnight respite for adults in Southampton.

Currently the council runs Kentish Road in Shirley, external provider Way Ahead Leisure Pursuits delivers the Weston Court service in Weston, and registered charity Rose Road Association supports people with more complex needs.

The proposed changes would see the local authority expand provision at its Kentish Road site and bring the operation of Weston Court in-house.

This would also see some users of Rose Road transferred to Kentish Road.

Cabinet member for adults and health Cllr Marie Finn told the scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday, January 23, there were four aims to the changes they wanted to make – increase capacity to meet a forecast rise in demand, reduce costs, maintain quality and maintain the number of nights of respite people receive.

Committee chair Cllr Richard Blackman said the current external providers believed they could run the service at a lower cost, especially if the whole service was outsourced.

When asked why this was not explored, Cllr Finn said: “We do have to make savings at the moment because of the situation that we are in, but it’s really important that we have a long-term stability and a long-term financial and quality stability in the respite service.

“If we are doing it with (external) residential providers we will just have to keep going back to the market.

“We are vulnerable to uplifts. There is still a lot of chopping and changing.

“If we bring it in-house, we have got a lot more control over it and we will be a lot less vulnerable.

“The staff would be paid on the (higher) council rates, which given that we can do it that way, we should.”

The meeting heard Rose Road and Way Ahead had offered to tender to run all three services.

Kirsty Dennett, Rose Road Association’s head of finance and central services, said this was turned down because a consultation process was already in progress and only two options were being considered.

“As an association we have not had the opportunity to put our cost models forward, however, we do believe we could meet all four aims that Cllr Finn is talking about,” Ms Dennett said.

She added: “It does feel like it is a bit of a done deal already and our provision hasn’t been considered.”

There were various disputes over the figures the council was using to underpin its proposals.

Alex Grant, director at Way Ahead, said: “I want to work with the council to get a good outcome but it is really frustrating.

“The figures don’t add up. Please go back to the drawing board.”

Committee member Cllr Rob Stead said rushing through a decision without considering all options did not seem the best approach.

This was echoed by Cllr Steve Leggett, who said all proposals should be considered for “good governance”.

Lynette Hall, whose daughter uses the residential overnight respite service, said communication with the council remained an issue.

“In amongst all of this there are a lot of costs that in places don’t add up, but nobody has thought of the emotional costs on the person who is going for respite and also the carers,” Ms Hall said.

She added: “We’re expected to trust and trust. If the council lets us down, we’re just expected to get up and trust you again and again.”

Addressing the committee directly, she said: “You can leave your position as a councillor and just forget us.

“We’re in this position for life, so I think you need to be aware of that when you’re making decisions.”

Amanda Guest, whose daughter accesses the service at Kentish Road, said she thinks the consultation had been rushed through on a false premise.

She said many families were planning to take the matter to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.

There was a significant financial wastage on agency staff at Kentish Road over the past six years, Ms Guest said.

“In one year alone, £808,000 was spent on agency staff,” she said.

“That is a disgraceful waste of money in my opinion.

“We need to go back and look at that and how you are going to manage that better in terms of banking staff regularly.”

The scrutiny committee decided to recommend that cabinet postpone its decision until details are available on the option of full external provision of respite in the city.

Cabinet is due to discuss the matter at a meeting on Tuesday, January 28.