A leading county councillor has signalled that cost-cutting proposals to change the opening hours of adult day services across Hertfordshire will not go ahead.

Earlier this year, the authority consulted on plans to change the opening hours of services – which are used by 900 people a week- so they would open at 9.30am and close at 4.30pm.

The change – which would mean people would be picked up later in the morning and arrive home later in the afternoon – was proposed in a bid to make more efficient use of the council’s fleet of vehicles.

And it would have meant the same fleet of vehicles could be used to take children with SEND to school or college and then transport adults to day services.

Cllr Sally Symington is the leader of Dacorum Borough Council. Credit: Dacorum Borough Council.

placeholder image — Cllr Sally Symington is the leader of Dacorum Borough Council. Credit: Dacorum Borough Council.

As part of the changes, those who travelled to council-run day services independently would no longer be able to arrive at the centre before 9.30am.

And a formal decision on the proposal had been scheduled to be made by the county council this month. But at a meeting of the full county council on Tuesday (July 21) executive member for adult social care, Cllr Sally Symington (Liberal Democrat, Tring), signalled that the council would no longer be looking to change the day services opening hours.

In response to a question from Cllr Tony Kingsbury (Conservative, Welwyn), Cllr Symington said they had consulted on plans to change the opening times. And she said that this had been to enable the council to use the vehicles currently used to take adults to day services to also take children with special needs to school.

But she said that it had been postponed and that they were not currently planning to make any changes to day services, in terms of opening hours.

Nevertheless, she said they were looking at making savings through a different method, in terms of how the council uses its own transport and whether to contract-out or contract-in.

She told the meeting, “In terms of the day services, I think you can take it that we will not be changing the opening hours”. And she added: “Obviously, to change the opening times would have caused significant changes to people’s travel arrangements.

“And we are prioritising vulnerable people who use these services – and enabling them to carry on using them in the way that they are. There are other ways of making efficiencies which we will be bringing forward later in the year.”

The decision to retain the existing opening hours has been welcomed by Cllr Kingsbury, who had asked about the service during the meeting.

“I am really delighted that they are not changing the opening hours,” said Cllr Kingsbury. “I think it would have made it more difficult for residents using the services to use them.”

The council currently runs day services across a network of 27 sites. And the council provides transport using a combination of council vehicles and drivers and vehicles run by contracted operators. Confirming the plans to retain the existing opening hours, Cllr Symington later said: “Earlier this year we consulted on plans to change the opening hours and transport arrangements for our day services, to achieve our savings target.

“We have carefully reviewed and listened to the feedback we received from people we support, their families, carers and our staff.

“As a result, we have decided not to make changes to the opening hours. Instead, we will deliver the required savings by changing the way we provide transport and making it as efficient as possible.

“This decision reflects our commitment to listening to residents and putting people we support at the heart of everything we do, while continuing to deliver the savings required in the most effective way.”

The council’s consultation on the proposals to change day services opening times and council transport arrangements ran between March 19 and May 17.