On Monday 7th November 2011, Nottingham City Council unveiled proposals to close the award winning Day Care Service at The Indian Community Centre (ICCA) as part of its plans to make savings.
This proposal targets the centres that are providing services to Black Minority Ethnic elders. This will impact significantly our current service users as well those currently aged between 50 and 60, who may require these services in the future.
The proposal is a real worry to us as it will change the lives of our families and community members who use the Day Care Service at The ICCA. Our service users tell us they enjoy coming to The ICCA for their Day Care. Not having a Day Care Service that they can use or one, which does not meet their cultural, language and dietary needs will be very difficult for service users and their families to deal with.
Therefore, the trustees are fully committed to getting the decision makers at Nottingham City Council to change their mind. The Management Committee at The ICCA is and will robustly challenge this proposal on the following grounds:
· The Day Care service at The ICCA offers excellent value for money services when compared with other day care services run by the City Council, so why propose to shut it down;
· The proposal appears to be discriminating against service users from black and ethnic minority, the City Council are considering re-locating our service users to other day care service centres which will not meet the cultural, language and dietary needs of our elders;
· The ICCA offers an environment and facilities for our elders that cannot be met anywhere else in Nottingham;
· So far, the business case for the proposal appears to be flawed and designed to secure the future of the Council’s own run facilities at the cost of meeting the cultural needs of our elders.
We have asked Nottingham City Council officers for additional information and their decision making timetable as we are keen to work with Nottingham City Council to develop a fair and transparent policy which looks at the needs of our service users and will save the Day Care Service at The ICCA.
We will need your help to work with us to challenge this proposal urgently. Please contact Jyoti Agheda on 0115 9693402 or via e mail jyoti.agheda@theicca.co.uk to find out how to get involved in order to protect the Day Care Service at The ICCA for the benefit of our elders in our community today and in the future. We will keep you informed of developments. It would help us if you can provide an email address to keep you up to date given the pace of work that will now need to happen to protect The Day Care Service at The ICCA.
What you can do to help:
1. Write to or e mail your Councillors or Members of Parliament asking them to stop the closure of the Day Care Services at The ICCA. Some of the key Councillors and Members of Parliaments details are as below. Please copy in Jyoti Agheda on the e mails. Jyoti’s e mail address again is: jyoti.agheda@theicca.co.uk
Councillors:
Jon Collins: jon.collins@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Graham Chapman: graham.chapman@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Toby Neal: toby.neal@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Alex Norris: alex.norris@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Eunice Campbell: eunice.campbell@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Brian Parbutt: brian.parbutt@nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Postal address of all the above Councillors is:
Nottingham City Council, LH Box 28, Loxley House, Station Street, Nottingham. NG2 3NG
MP’s:
Chris Leslie: chris.leslie@parliament.uk
Lillian Greenwood: lilian.greenwood.mp@parliament.uk
Postal Address for the above two MP’s is:
1st Floor, 12 Regent Street, Nottingham. NG1 5BQ
Vernon Coaker: vernon.coaker.mp@parliament.uk
Graham Allen: graham.allen.mp@parliament.uk
Postal Address for the above two MP’s is:
2A Parkyn Road, Daybrook, Nottingham. NG5 6BG
2. Tweet or Facebook Nottingham City Council with your comments about the proposed closure and impact of their proposals. Get your families and friends to do the same.
3. Support us in future actions that will be planned.
Thank you
Sudheer Gupta
Lead Board Member ICCA Care