No respite for carer after cuts

May Lewis has lived with her daughter for three years [Pic: South Wales Argus]

A full-time carer who looks after her mother says funding cuts mean she no longer gets a break each week.

Until Sunday, Wendy Angel's 89-year-old mother May Lewis, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, went into respite care once a week, for six hours.

Blaenau Gwent council cut £40,000 of funding to the Crossroads scheme in Ebbw Vale which provided the service.

The council said its "poor" budget settlement from the assembly government meant savings had to be made.

It added that only 10 people using Crossroads' weekend respite service had been affected and alternatives would be discussed.

It sounds horrible but I feel like I've nothing to look forward to now Wendy Angel

Mrs Angel, 55, of Tredegar, said: "People like me desperately need this. I think it's very cruel and it's not just me, it's other people too. I'm appalled by it.

"It's my decision - I chose to look after my mother but all I wanted was a little bit of day care for a little bit of a break from each other.

"It was a chance for me and my husband to do our own thing, to have a break for a few hours."

Mrs Angel started caring for her mother three years ago after she accidentally started a fire at home.

Mrs Lewis's condition had deteriorated to such an extent that she could no longer live alone.

Mrs Angel and her husband Malcolm had come to depend upon the short break that the Crossroads service at Ysbyty'r Tri Chwm in Ebbw Vale gave them each Sunday.

'Very wrong'

"It sounds horrible but I feel like I've nothing to look forward to now. When you look after someone with Alzheimer's you can't go out," she said.

"This Crossroads [scheme] is for people like me. Why has that been taken off me? It's very wrong."

Mrs Angel received a letter from Crossroads saying the Sunday time-out service would end, reductions would be made to the Saturday service and a carers' contact centre would close.

Blaenau Gwent council said after the "low funding settlement" from the assembly government, a review of contracts with voluntary organisations had started, and a potential reduction of up to £40,000 for the Crossroads schemes had been identified.

"In 2008/2009 we funded Crossroads services locally with £268,000. Our negotiations were aimed at identifying how the service could be modernised to meet the needs of our partners and service users. We also wanted to maximise value for money," said the council in a statement.

New assessments

"We are in the process of agreeing with Crossroads to develop a new model of service that provides minimum disruption to frontline services. We can support it with the funding now available.

"We also agreed with Crossroads at an early stage that any impact on service users would be monitored.

"Where appropriate, new assessments would be undertaken to ensure that alternative packages of support were agreed."

The council added it was "disappointed" it had not been notified by Crossroads that the letter was being sent to all service users, even those unaffected by the changes.

Crossroads has been asked for a statement.