Work is underway to provide a phased re-opening of some of the county’s day centres, the county council has confirmed.
A limited number of centres have opened, and Social Services officers will be meeting with independent day centre providers in the near future to discuss particular service needs.
“The Coronavirus pandemic has stopped our older residents from getting out and about, meeting with friends and doing many of the things that they enjoy. We understand the role that day centres can have in creating a space for connection and occupation for the people who use them, and how important they can be to carers, allowing them time to work, or to give them a break from their caring work” said Councillor Sian Cox, Cabinet Member for a Caring Powys
“We recognise the tremendous contribution to the community made by unpaid carers throughout the county, and how much they need to have time for rest and recuperation, or for doing other things.
“Our re-opening of Day Centres is phased, because the pandemic has reduced how many staff we have, and placed restrictions on their return to work following illness; and we have to make sure each centre that re-opens has enough staff to run it safely. So far, our Day Centres are open in Brecon, Ystradgynlais and Llanidloes.
“The Park Day Centre in North Powys is leased to Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB) until February 2023 and PTHB will be using it as a vaccination centre until then. We will work alongside the people affected by this to work out how we can provide as much as possible of what the Day Centre provided them with, but in other ways.
“The day services in Llandrindod Wells do not have an opening date because some of our staff there are supporting other crucial services, like the reablement service, and we don’t yet have enough staff to run the Day Centre safely.
“Our staff work alongside people to understand what matters to them; and so we are talking to older residents and working in partnership with them and others to work out how, as well as re-opening Day Centres, we can help them connect with friends, do the things they enjoy and take part in other opportunities in their communities” she added.
