'Families desperate for adult social care support'

A charity that supports people with visual impairment and complex needs is getting "daily" phone calls from families and carers desperate for help.

Focus Birmingham annually supports 3,000 people with sight loss and more than 100 with complex disabilities - but it now needs to raise £600,000 to expand its services.

It already runs five days a week with five hubs - offering personal and individual support - but it is currently at full capacity.

In response, chief executive Cate Burke said the funds it raises would be used to finance a sixth hub, enabling it to support 20 more people.

One of those being supported is Stephen Thompson, who has a range of complex needs, including learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder and epilepsy.

He has been coming to the hub since he was aged 21, initially coming for one or two days.

When his father died 10 years ago, the time spent with Focus increased to five days a week, which is continuing.

His mother Celia, is grateful for the support.

"If I did not have Focus to send him to, I am not sure I would be in the position I am in now," she says.

"If I did not have that placement five days a week, I would be struggling."

When it comes to social care in general, she is worried about the future, saying "they are shutting more and more centres".

"It is getting ridiculous, there needs to be more input into social care," Thompson says.

"These adults with social disabilities are not going anywhere and the parents are there 24/7 caring for them."

It is something Focus Birmingham is aware of, with Burke saying demand for social care is increasing.

"People are living longer now and therefore the services are more stretched," she said.

"Education is a challenge at the moment, we have lots of people leaving school earlier, so they move into adult social services earlier than they did previously.

"When people leave school and they have not got a placement with us, it has a huge impact on the person individually as there is nowhere for them to go to every day."

Referring to the money the charity needs, she said: "We need to fund new specially adapted minibuses [and] we will be renovating part of our building."

The charity also want to build two fully-adapted changing rooms, a sensory room and are looking to open the sixth hub as soon as possible.

"We are also looking at respite services, as we currently only support people between 09:00 and 15:00," Burke continued.

"Across Birmingham, unfortunately, there are not a lot of spaces for people with complex disabilities to go and get overnight care."