AS exclusively revealed by Thurrock Nub News, Thurrock Council is set to permanently close two day care centres for older folk and its meals on wheels service in a bid to save more than £500,000.

The news leaves the council's portfolio holder for adult social care totally red-faced, as it is just days since she said no discussions had taken place on these proposed changes.

The council's three day centres - Kynoch Court in Stanford-le-Hope; Thurrock Carers Centre at Cromwell Road on Grays, and the centre at Bellhouse in South Ockendon were shut last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, despite raising council tax by three per cent to pay for adult social services in the borough, the doors in South Ockendon and Stanford will remain closed for good says a report from the cash-strapped council.

Members at a meeting of the council's health and well-being committee tomorrow (Thursday, 17 June) will be told the cost-cutting axe is to be swung. The full report can be read here.

And it is also set to fall on the meals on wheels service – with the council further cashing in by selling the site from where volunteers currently help run the service.

When the day care service resumes, it is planned that it will be offered only at Cromwell Road from 9am to 4pm. There will be an increase in the activities offered and opportunities for informal caregivers and other community groups to meet and support service users and each other. A virtual friendship is also being launched for those don't attend day care centres.

The meals on wheels service, formerly run by the WRVS but now managed by the council, operates from a council-owned building in Corran Way, South Ockendon. It is need of refurbishment but if the service closes it is likely the site will be sold to developers.

A report to Health and Wellbeing Board councillors ahead of tomorrow's meeting said: "The service is now extremely costly due to its declining popularity, with fewer than 90 regular service users. This represents a reduction of 26 per cent in service users over the past six years and is likely to be the result of newer and more desirable options being available, including online foods services and improved supermarket delivery of ready meals."

The council also wants to streamline adult social services by 'closer working' between its four statutory services, Collins House Residential Care, Extra Care Piggs Corner and Thurrock Care At Home.

Wellbeing teams, small teams of ten working with individuals to provide personalised care and rehabilitation support, have been piloted in Tilbury and Chadwell for the past two years and have resulted in a seven-fold reduction in GP visits and a three-fold reduction and hospital emissions.

The council estimates this streamlining of services and day care centres will save £349,000.

A further £190,000 will be saved by decommissioning the Meals on Wheels service and the council will earn £15,000 by re-letting the Bell House site.

lH2]Portfolio holder denied the truth of Nub News exclusive report[H2]

Thurrock Nub News first broke the story of the cuts earlier this month though portfolio holder for adults and community, Cllr Deb Huelin, played down concerns. On Friday, 4 June she said: "No decisions or discussions on the models of care provided have been undertaken."

Yet the report now table appears to massively contradict her statement – it seems inconceivable that the in-depth report put together by Dawn Shepherd, the council's strategic lead for provider services, put to tomorrow's meeting and which was published last week, could have been conceived, debated and discussed in just six days.