Madam,

The current Ceredigion County Council Corporate Risk Register provides vindication, if any were needed, that the Save Bodlondeb Campaign was right to argue that Bodlondeb Residential Home in Penparcau, Aberystwyth, should have remained open at least until alternative provision was in place.

More than once the campaign provided the county council with evidence that the closure of Bodlondeb would place an intolerable strain on already-struggling home care services.

Each time, the then director of Social Services and head of the ‘consultation’ into the future of Bodlondeb, assured councillors that theirs was the correct way to proceed.

Now promoted to loftier office, this individual has been succeeded by a new director, who has spared no blushes in their contribution to the Corporate Risk Register: “Potential Risk: Inability to meet the demand for Domiciliary Care within Ceredigion due to the current fragility of services resulting in:

• Reputational harm to the council due to the stated reliance of [sic] ‘care at home’ as part of the Bodlondeb consultations.

• The potential for people’s tenancies to be at risk and increased poverty amongst our most vulnerable families.”

So it would seem that with having all the facts regarding the precarious state of the domiciliary care provision available and pointed out, those leading the consultation into Bodlondeb’s future continued to take Ceredigion, its councillors and people down the wrong path. This week Hywel Dda University Health Board issued a plea for families to pick up their elderly relatives promptly and to be prepared to provide care for said relative on a “temporary short-term” basis while they await a “formal package of care”.

The results? The most vulnerable in the county struggle to get any services, let alone adequate ones.

Yours etc, George Holloway, on behalf of North Ceredigion Forum for Elderly Care

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