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12
Dec
Being forced to leave Knaresborough care home could be a 'death sentence' for disabled man, says dad
Nine people with profound learning and physical disabilities are being forced to move out of their care home in Knaresborough before it closes on Tuesday.
Sherburn House on Chain Lane is run by the Wilf Ward Family Trust, which says it can longer afford to keep the facility open.
As we have previously reported, the trust contacted residents’ families in October to let them know of the decision, and gave them eight weeks to find alternative accommodation. Residents must move out by December 16, although the home is already marked "permanently closed" on Google Maps.
But there is a shortage of specialist places for adults with such complex needs, and some of the alternatives on offer are as far afield as Wakefield, the east coast and Teesside.
'Death sentence'
One of the residents is Daniel Beardsley, who was born with a chromosomal abnormality and needs round-the-clock care. His dad, Gavin, took to Facebook over the weekend to post a video expressing his frustration with a situation he says could end up being fatal for Daniel and his fellow residents.
He said:
Dan spent the first seven or eight years of his life in hospital and had started to stabilise when at around the age of 12 scoliosis [curvature of the spine] started to become a problem.
There was the option to put a metal rod through Dan’s spine, but if it had gone wrong, he could have been left in permanent pain.
So I had to make the awful decision to just let his bones do what they do – and eventually his ribs will cave in on his lungs and he will slowly suffocate to death.
This is why this home is so unique. These guys have all got severe, complex needs. For 10 years, these amazing people – the staff – have kept them alive, because they know what to look out for.
Anywhere else, the staff won’t know the signs for each individual, and they might miss something. It could be a death sentence.
'We need to be close to him'
So far, Daniel has defied the odds. Doctors originally warned the family that he would not live beyond the age of five. He is now 27.
Nevertheless, Mr Beardsley knows that some day he will lose his son, and when that happens, he wants to be nearby.
It was hoped that another provider might be able to take over the running of Sherburn House, but none has yet been found.
So Mr Beardsley has found Daniel a place in Calverley, near Bradford, but he hopes it will be a temporary solution until he can find somewhere closer to home.
He said:
We’ve nearly lost Dan several times, and we need to be close to him. We moved from Harrogate to Knaresborough just so we could be with him straight away if we need to be. Because he can go downhill very quickly, and if we’re not there within minutes... We don’t want to lose him without being by his side. It’s always in the back of our minds.
Daniel and his stepmother, Rebecca Fennell.
'We're on our own'
Mr Beardsley is angry that the facility is being closed rather than being handed over intact to a different care provider, and said that the Wilf Ward Family Trust had left them with no support.
He said:
Nobody deserves to be treated like this – to be kicked out two weeks before Christmas. Wilf Ward have done absolutely nothing to help the families – we're on our own.
'Intensive support'
But a spokesperson for the Wilf Ward Family Trust said it did not underestimate the impact of the closure on families, and it was working to make the transition as smooth as possible. They told us:
We have been supporting families and the local authority intensively and will continue to do so. We've accompanied on visits to alternatives to help assess suitability and ensured support plans are very clear about how to best support individuals. Everyone has been offered placements, and some moves have already taken place.
There have been regular meetings with families, and everyone has had a dedicated 'Move Buddy'. We have designed a personal welfare and communication plan for each person, which has included personalised digital storybooks that talk directly to individuals using communication styles that meet their needs and address any questions they have, which families have been involved in.
Additionally, we brought in a creative organisation who have run three great workshops with individuals to support the transition as part of this to support everyone to be able to engage and express themselves using inclusive and interactive learning methods. The team at Wilf Ward has been incredible in supporting individuals and family with compassion, dedication and positivity.
'They don't have a voice'
Mr Beardsley said the home’s closure was also unfair on the staff, who had dedicated the last decade to the care of Daniel and the other residents. He said:
The staff here give us absolute confidence in what they do, because they have saved his life on numerous occasions, as they have other residents’ lives. They don’t deserve to be kicked out either.
They all work together to make these guys’ lives better. They take them out to the pub, they take them to festivals – they give them a life, they give them hope, they give them so much more than any other home could.
Sherburn House is quite unique, and that is why this place needs to stay open.
Many of these guys are locked in their own bodies. They don’t have a voice – they can’t say a word. We’re not just fighting for Dan – we're fighting for all of them.
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