A CHARITY which has supported a children’s respite centre in Hereford for more than 30 years has expressed serious doubts that the facility will remain open after March next year.

No 1, Ledbury Road, which provides short break and overnight respite service for children with disabilities and their families, has long been under-threat and subject to a number of campaigns in a bid to secure its future.

In August this year, Wye Valley NHS Trust informed Herefordshire Council of its intention not to tender for any aspect of the overnight short breaks provision when the current contract ends on March 31 2017.

In September, cabinet agreed to proceed with the re-commissioning of short break services for children with disabilities, with contracts due to be awarded early next year ready to start on April 1 2017.

But despite requests for information in order to produce a business plan and a tender to take over the service, Children at Number 1, a charity set up to support No 1, Ledbury Road, says it has not received any of the necessary information and believes the window of opportunity has now closed.

Kevin Basden, chairman, said he understood tenders were required by the end of September but, as the detailed information required to form a tender was never received, the charity was unable to take the matter forward.

However, in a statement, a Herefordshire Council spokesman said it is not at an appropriate stage in the procurement process to know whether any other provider will be operating a service out of 1 Ledbury Road, adding that further information will be provided in the New Year.

Mr Basden said: “This is not a commercial organisation, this is volunteers offering to do something for the benefit of those families in distress. It beggars belief.

"If we had put through a business plan and they did not like it and there was justification for that then good luck to them. If there were an alternative I would back down but they have not got a substitute. I know full well the council has not got any money which is why we were offering to take over the service.

"It's the idea of the 'Big Society', the charity takes over the work."

MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, Jesse Norman, who is a patron of the charity Children at Number 1, said the position of No 1 Ledbury Road continued to be a source of great concern. "Last year we succeeded in getting a stay of execution against closure," he said.

"But this was in part to permit the submission of bids to manage respite services there. It is not clear why this contract has not been made available, especially since there has been clear interest from at least one potential bidder."

Meanwhile, Marcelle Lloyd-Hayes, a member of Herefordshire Council's health and social care overview and scrutiny committee, said if families are left with nowhere to go it will be a ‘disgrace’.

In its statement, Herefordshire Council said the services it proposes to commission have been fully developed in consultation with families of children with disabilities, especially those with substantial care needs.

"This is to ensure they have as much choice, control and flexibility as possible to meet their individual assessed needs in different ways. Our commissioning includes overnight respite for children and families," the spokesman said.

"Wye Valley NHS Trust has already announced its intention not to bid to run a service from 1 Ledbury Road from 1 April 2017. The council has provided all interested organisations with the same information to allow for a fair and competitive re-commissioning process.

"In September 2016, cabinet agreed to allocate funding of up to £450,000 a year to the county’s short breaks programme from 2017/18 to 2019/20 to ensure we provide a diverse range of services to continue meeting the needs of the county’s children with disabilities and their families.”