Public meeting on learning disability '˜under funding'

The meeting is being held to discuss the amount of money being spent by the Western Health and Social Care Trust on learning disability services.

Organisers of the meeting say the Western Health and Social Care Trust recently informed a number of carers who represent families of adults with learning disability within the Trust area that a report, prepared by the Health and Social Care Board, has identified that there has been consistent underfunding over a number of years in adult learning disability services amounting to at least £8 million per year, and that funding that should have been allocated to adult learning disability was routinely allocated to other programmes of care.

Organisers say the public meeting is part of a campaign to ensure the immediate re-instatement of the £8 million to the budget, and to seek retrospective funding for all the years that Learning Disability services have been underfunded.

The Parents and Friends Association is extending a special invitation to families and individuals living with learning disabilities to the meeting, to those who work within the Trust and those groups who deliver services within the community and voluntary sector.