A petition to save a North Wales disability charity has now been backed by more than 1,000 people.
The petition calls on the Welsh Government to step in to come to rescue of Anheddau which supports 140 severely disabled people from across Gwynedd, Conwy, Anglesey, Denbighshire and Wrexham.
The organisation, which has helped people with autism, learning disabilities, mental health conditions and complex needs for more than 35 years, is fighting for its future because of soaring costs.
It’s revealed that it’s facing a £400,000 shortfall because of increases in the Real Living Wage and National Employer Contributions – leaving 400 jobs hanging in the balance.
The petition was launched on the Welsh Parliament’s website by Bala couple Laura and Mark Bugby and their daughter Rebecca.
Laura and Mark’s son John is supported by Anheddau but his family are worried about his future care should the organisation fold.
The petition, which can be found at https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/246703 urges the Welsh Government to ensure funding it gives to councils for charities is fully passed through to the organisations.
It also calls for the Welsh Government to enforce fair commissioning standards, engage with providers on funding impacts and commit to long-term reform to protect essential care services.
If 10,000 people sign the petition, it will be considered for debate in the Senedd.
Other families who would be affected by the closure of Anheddau have also spoken out in support for the petition.
They include Trystan Williams whose severely disabled sister Rhian Williams is cared for by Anheddau.
Trystan and Rhian were brought up in Bangor, where their father Will Parry Williams was a long-serving headteacher at the former Ysgol Treborth residential special school.
Trystan said he backed the online petition to save Anheddau, and said assurances on its future was vital for its dedicated staff.
He said: “For me, the most important thing is the continuity of care and also for the staff members to have clarity and certainty on their future.
“How can we make sure vulnerable people like my sister are having the best care possible if you don’t have the right people there with job certainty moving forward?”
Trystan said he was pleased more than 1,000 had now signed the online petition in support of Anheddau.
He said: “We need to fight because ultimately any change of provider will bring uncertainty and employment issues.
“Realistically, if anyone is going to come in and try to run the supported living settings cheaper, all that means is that you will probably get a service which is not up to the standards that it needs to be.”
Trystan said his sister is physically able but has a cognitive age of a six to nine-month-old child after suffering complications from birth.
Rhian has been in the three-person care home for 23 years, with Anheddau providing the support for more than 10 years after taking the site over from another organisation.
Trystan said: “Rhian is fully dependent on her carers and has to have constant one-to-one, and sometimes two-to-one, support just to function, just to eat safely for example.
“We lived together as a family until my parents became too elderly to look after her and then we went through a translation of having her move to the care home.
“Both mum and dad are gone now, so I have got legal responsibility for my sister.”
Trystan, who now lives in Wiltshire and whose mother Dilys was in charge of a pre-school assessment unit in Llangefni, Anglesey, said he was worried about the level of care Rhian would receive if Anheddau failed to survive.
He said: “It is a moral obligation to make sure that organisations do have the appropriate amount of money so these adults can live a life that makes sense to them.
“The biggest risk is that if Anheddau can’t provide the support on a particular cost, will the next company come in and try to run it for less?
“If they try to run it for less, you won’t have the quality that Anheddau is currently providing or the staffing ratios.
“It’s important that Rhian is able to do things in the community and live a life which makes sense to her – having her routine, going out swimming, doing things that you and I should be able to do.
“Life hasn’t dealt her the kindest of cards anyway, so she at least deserves to have the care and ongoing support of people that she has known for many, many years.
“She might not be able to tell you verbally, but she does have feelings, does have emotions.
“To put her through that would be heartbreaking.”
Trystan also urged councillors to play their part in ensuring local authorities provide adequate funding to organisations such as Anheddau.
He said: “All of this doesn’t just sit on the shoulders of the Welsh Government.
“It’s about local authorities stepping up financially as well and it’s about how proactive local councillors are about stepping up to save these services.”
Anheddau chief executive Claire Higgins said the charity had been left in an “increasingly fragile position” after years of underfunding and rising costs.
She explained that despite staff working tirelessly, the sector was under “unprecedented strain” and without urgent action “charities like ours may not survive”.
Mario Kreft MBE, chair of Care Forum Wales, echoed those concerns, warning that the collapse of organisations such as Anheddau would have a “profound human cost”.
He said: “The Real Living Wage has gone up by five per cent and there was a 37 per cent increase in the cost of National Insurance and it amazes me that the decision makers in charge of the purse strings think the social care providers can somehow magically absorb the extra costs without additional funding.
“Sadly, this is not just a huge, existential problem for Anheddau. It is also having a major impact on the whole of the social care sector because we are all affected by exactly the same issues.
“As a result, it will undoubtedly lead to providers having to look at curtailing services and even having to close in a number of cases.”
