Meeting arranged to discuss future of day care at Bell View in Northumberland

This comes after the announcement last week of the decision to close Bell View Care Limited, which is the arm of the Bell View group providing a day care service.

After the announcement, public support for the charity has been overwhelming, with offers of help coming from many directions including North Northumberland MP David

Smith and county councillors in north Northumberland.

The meeting will look at establishing new ways of working with Northumberland County Council (NCC) which will address the day care needs of communities in North Northumberland in a financially viable way.

Chairman of Bell View Trustees, Martin McMahon said: “We are extremely grateful for the outpouring of support we have received since making the very sad decision to close the Bell View Day Care Ltd.

"The trustees and staff at Bell View are working actively with NCC, our clients, their carers and other key stakeholders in an attempt to re-establish a new form of service as soon as practicable in 2025.”

Bell View will continue to operate all other services as normal, including its Bell View Help at Home service and all activities delivered by the charity, including but not limited to social and exercise activities; our community café; room and wheelchair hire and fundraising events.

It had previously announced plans to close the day care service at the end of January.

A statement on its website reads: "Bell View Day Care is the only day care provider in North Northumberland and has a deservedly excellent reputation which is testament to the hard work of our dedicated team.

"We are proud of the important contribution that our service has made in helping people with additional needs and we are extremely concerned that the closure of our service will leave a large gap in the provision of support.

“All other services run by Bell View will remain the same: Bell View (Belford) [our charity] and Bell View Help at Home will continue to operate.

“However, our Day Care service is now financially unsustainable, and we therefore expect to close it on 31st January 2025. The financial difficulties are due- in part - to the significant funding pressures the social care sector has experienced in recent years.

"Throughout the last year, we have experienced a significant decline in income from service referrals. This decline, alongside the cost-of-living crisis affecting our clients have made it impossible to both meet the high standard of care we pride ourselves on and to remain financially viable.”

It continues: “We remain deeply committed to the communities we serve and will continue to explore ways to help people, whether that is via Bell View (Belford) (our charity) or our Help at Home services.

"We are also working closely with Northumberland County Council to ensure that, where necessary, alternative arrangements are made so that support needs continue to be met.

“We are fully committed to managing the transition for our clients with the utmost care and sensitivity.

“We sincerely thank our clients, carers, families and our staff for their understanding during this difficult period.”