Debate contribution: Respite Provision: South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust

Debate contribution by Mr David Honeyford on 8 April 2025.

MLA

Mr David Honeyford

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

8 April 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

Respite Provision: South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4920028

Read the official Assembly record

Text

My first proper job before I was self-employed was working in the Lisburn assessment and resource centre (LARC) in Seymour Hill garden centre, which provides job opportunities for adults with learning difficulties. They are days that I remember really fondly. Roll on to 2022, after the election, when I sat in Hilden Bowling Club listening to stories from local parents, some of whom were getting older and were really concerned for their loved ones and some with the most vulnerable residents of Lagan Valley. A couple of other representatives and councillors were at that meeting, and we came away from it really affected by the stories that we heard. I have enjoyed working with those parents since. We are really blessed in Lagan Valley, and, thankfully, we have them, because there is a real powerhouse of energy from a lot of those parents, who fight for the cause. I have been really blessed to have been able to give them some small assistance to get them started. I will give a shout-out to Vivien and Karen who started Sensability and to Philip who started the Live Life Well-being Centre. I thank the Minister for his engagement in early January. He came to Sensability to listen to parents' concerns around not just respite but transport, the needs and building needs of the area and the wider issues simply to make life better and easier for people. Prior to the debate, I chatted to some carers. They are the type of people who, when my electricity was out during the recent storm, contacted me to make sure that I was OK. We are talking about the type of people who go above and beyond their own family and look out for society as a whole. I spoke to someone who said:

"David, I can't stress how important respite is. This is not a luxury."

The resumption of respite in Hillhall has, thankfully, started to ease pressure on some families after a period of 18 months without any respite. Unfortunately, Hillhall has been closed and open for the past five years. The real concern in the community is, yet again, an emergency placement, which effectively closes the centre to everybody else. During that period of blocking, we heard the same tired excuses from the Department that there was nowhere else to place people. I do not want to get into discussing the situation around the last individual who was there, but there was always an alternative solution. The fact that they are not blocking that facility today is evidence of that. The system for allocating respite was also raised. The social worker needs to sign it off, and Diane rightly mentioned that. I am aware of quite a few families who cannot access respite care simply because they cannot get to their social worker. Minister, you met Beth, and you will remember her. She looks after her sister Jenny. Beth is 81, and her concerns are around Jenny. She articulated those passionately to you and to me a couple of times before that, and her concern is about what will happen to Jenny as Beth gets older. Ultimately, she is 81 and will not be around for ever, and her concern is what will happen there. When you met, she was so appreciative, but, today, Jenny still waits for a care package. She has been waiting since Christmas. I heard only recently that Beth has not had access to any respite care and, unfortunately, very recently had a fall.

The question has to be asked: with a care package in place and respite care, would they be as exhausted, and would events have turned out the way that they have? I do not know, but this is Jenny's life, which, I suppose, is when decisions meet reality. The Department is actually placing more cost on itself. Through inefficiency and not dealing with one issue, you create a cost elsewhere.

I want to wrap there. Again, I thank the Minister for coming, but we need an assurance that access to respite in Hillhall will continue in the long term and that it cannot be an option to use that facility for anything other than respite care. I would appreciate the Minister's confirming that without any ifs and buts. We need a firm guarantee for the families that that facility will remain open and that it will be used solely for respite as we move forward.

741 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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