Swindon Carers Centre to close

The team at Swindon Carers centre have announced its closure at the end of the year after 27 years.

The centre is a charitable organisation and part of the Carers Trust Network, established to provide help and support to the 18,315 unpaid carers in Swindon.

The centre's closure was announced in a statement saying: "Swindon Carers Centre (SCC) is devastated to announce its closure at the end of 2024, after 27 years of dedicated service. The decision comes after SCC formally withdrew from the live procurement process being run by Swindon Borough Council for the Carer Services Contract for Swindon on August 5th, as commissioning decisions by the local authority rendered the tender unviable.  

"The charity’s Board of Trustees and Senior Leadership Team, in consultation with external auditors, unanimously agreed the risks to staff, governance, and unpaid carers themselves were too significant to proceed with the bidding process. As this contract funding is SCC’s main source of income, this difficult decision will lead to the charity’s closure when its current contract with Swindon Borough Council concludes on 31st December."

Swindon Borough Council and the Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board issued a statement saying: "It’s standard practice to run a competitive procurement process to commission services and we started this for our carer services contract earlier this year.

"We terminated that process on 6 August following a review and notified Swindon Carers Centre and other providers that we wanted to work with them to strengthen and reissue the tender in response to provider feedback.

“In the interim, we offered a short-term contract to the Carers Centre with the same annual value as their existing one, with reduced responsibilities. We were disappointed to be notified that the Carers Centre has decided not to accept this offer and didn’t enter into a conversation to propose an alternative.

“Our priority is ensuring continuity of support for carers across Swindon who play such a vital and valued role. We will work closely with the Carers Centre until December to ensure this.”

According to the statement from the carers centre team, the procurement process was abandoned by the council three days before the bid submission deadline. 

The statement continues: "SCC has successfully delivered this Local Authority/Bath and North East Somerset Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (BSWICB) contract (which includes SBC’s statutory obligation under the Care Act and Children and Families Act to provide carer assessments and carer breaks) since 1997 and currently works with nearly 5,700 carers, of all ages, who support family members and friends with poor physical or mental health, disabilities or addictions. Over the year 2023-24, there was a 12% increase in the number of carers registering with the organisation, showcasing the growing demand for support. 

"SCC has worked exceptionally hard to diversify income. In addition to the SBC contract, over the last two years its Grants team secured £373,985 with 18 Trusts and Foundations and managed the stewardship of 21 grants in total. This success speaks to the unwavering trust and quality other funders see in SCC, as well as the dedication and hard work invested by the entire team to try to ensure financial security for the charity to deliver services to rising numbers of carers, monitor that work and measure it through clear impact reporting.   

"Following the abandonment of its tendering process, Swindon Borough Council asked Swindon Carers Centre to continue with an interim provision of services for a further 12 months to enable commissioners to produce an updated tender for procurement.  After careful consideration, unfortunately SCC’s Trustee Board sadly felt there were still very significant risks to quality provision, governance and carer focus, and those risks were far too great to be able to accept this late offer, which was below the minimum financial requirement SCC had stipulated it would need.   

"Swindon Carers Centre is one of several charities who have raised multiple concerns with SBC and BSW ICB over commissioning provision at SBC during the past 18 months, along with the continued financial risks to charities of underfunding and delayed procurement.    

"To ensure stability and consistency as SCC navigates these difficult times, CEO Susanna Jones, who had been due to leave at the end of August, will continue in her role until the end of December 2024. This decision will allow the organisation to maintain the experienced leadership necessary to manage the complex process of shutting down its operations.  

"In support of this transition, Bronte Hague will take on the role of Deputy CEO and will work closely with Susanna and the entire team to close Swindon Carers Centre in line with Charity Commission and Companies House best practice.   

Hannah Crawley, SCC's Chair of Trustees, said: “Providing high-quality, carer driven services across Swindon has been the priority for everyone who has worked at Swindon Carers Centre over the last 27 years.  We are hugely proud of the dedication, commitment and expertise our team has shown in the services we have delivered so successfully. We have serious concerns about the lack of clarity now over how carers will be supported from January 2025.”   

Susanna Jones, SCC CEO, said: “This is heartbreaking for Swindon Carers Centre, its staff, volunteers and Trustee Board.  We are exceptionally proud of the high-quality service we have delivered for more than a quarter of a century and have been incredibly connected with the carer community in Swindon as a trusted provider throughout that time.  

"Clearly there are questions to answer around the commissioning decisions which have led to this entirely avoidable situation. Our priority now is to continue to provide quality support for the many thousands of carers in Swindon until the end of December and focus all efforts on ensuring there is a clear plan for statutory carer support from January 2025.  

"It is vital the amazing carers in Swindon continue to be recognised, valued and championed for everything they do.  We will miss working with them very much.”   

Kirsty McHugh, Chief Executive of Carers Trust, the national charity that operates a network of over 130 local carer-support organisations of which Swindon Carers Centre is a member, says: “SCC is a great example of a high-quality local Carers Centre that has delivered value to the people of Swindon for over 27 years. 

"The loss of such deep local experience and knowledge is tragic.  Sadly, the situation in Swindon is symptomatic of a wider issue across the UK where both unpaid carers, and the organisations supporting them, are under-valued and under-funded. Unpaid carers are propping up our creaking health and social care systems and it’s organisations like Swindon Carers Centre that ensure carers are supported. It’s shortsighted to lose that vital local support.”  

The SCC team said in their announcement that they knew the news would come as a shock to many of the carers SCC worked with, and wanted the public to know that every possible avenue had been explored to avoid the scenario.

The statement concluded: "It has been the greatest privilege to have provided the Carers Contract in Swindon for the past 27 years and we would like to extend deepest gratitude to carers, staff, volunteers, trustees, funders and supporters and reiterate our commitment to ensuring the needs of carers in Swindon continues to be at our heart during this period of change. 

"Thank you for your continued support and understanding."

On hearing the news, Voluntary Action Swindon, a charity which helps other charities, issued a statement saying: "So very sad to read this announcement.

"We have a meeting scheduled with SBC later in August to discuss several issues raised by Swindon VCSE around procurement quality - we tried to broker a wider meeting with VCSE leaders earlier but SBC weren’t prepared to meet as didn’t feel able manage conflicts of interest around live procurement. What a devastating consequence.

"Huge thank you to SCC for 27 years of quality service supporting all the amazing unpaid carers in Swindon. You will be so very missed.

"Commissioning has to improve!"