Predictions about the most vulnerable suffering are coming true

Editorial Department • Published 29 Jul 2010 16:00 0 Comments

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Our photograph on page five brings home how many people will be affected by cuts in funding to a vital service for learning disabled children in the county.

Positive Futures helps learning disabled children and their families and will close in September for good as the Western Trust says it cannot fund it any more.

The funding of the service was inherited by the Trust. They say that when the Trust was established in April 2007, Positive Futures was funded through the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to provide support to families in the Fermanagh area as a pilot project over a three-year period. After the three-year pilot period ended, the Trust continued supporting Positive Futures through non-recurrent funding. It is no longer providing this non-recurrent funding.

We all know that services are being cut, left, right and centre. The Trust management's job is not an enviable one. How could it be? They have a range of services they cannot afford with the money they are given and the axe must fall somewhere.

But the question must be asked: are they cutting in the right places? The families, for the first time, have bravely spoken out. They have put their private family business into the public domain in the hope that it will make a difference to their children. Anyone would be reticent about doing this and it shows their commitment to seeing the maintenance of a project that for many is the only outlet their children have.

It is not "icing on the cake" in terms of services. It is essential. Time and again the families have used the words "devastation" when they describe what life will be like for them without Positive Futures. Apart from the impact on mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, they know the profound impact will be felt on the most vulnerable, the learning disabled, who by their nature most likely will be unable to understand what is going on. As one family member said: "It's unfair on the kids. How do you explain that to a kid with autism?"

The Trust has tough decisions to make but would it be too much for management to pay a visit to Lisnaskea to hear the families' concerns first-hand? That's what is being asked for.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 29 Jul 10

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