Tough effects of potential closure still being felt by Industrial Hub users in Peterborough despite it being saved, warns campaigner

Campaigner Hayley Janceski has welcomed the decision to permanently remove the threat of closure from the city’s Industrial Hub but has insisted that the effects of the last six weeks are still weighing on many service users.

The Save the Industrial Hub won a major victory this week with Cabinet Member for public health and adult social care Cllr Shabina Qayyum stepping into take the chance of the Hampton-based hub closing off the table completely.

The group were set up to save the hub when it was first announced in March that it was to close as part of council cutbacks. This closure was later paused pending further consultation but campaigners said that the decision did little to relieve anxiety with the threat of the hub closing still looming large.

With the decisive action now taken, the hub has been saved and while keen to savour the victory; Hayley, who has played a leading role in the campaign to raise awareness and ultimately save the hub, is also adamant that lessons need to be learnt so as vulnerable adults .

Hayley and her family have witnessed first-hand the impacts the potential closure of the hub has had on users, her brother Richard has been attending for the last 13 years and she has seen the impact the worrying news has had on him.

She said: “We are all exhausted and obviously relieved, it’s taken 24 hours for it to all sink in.

“We were very glad to hear that the hub had been saved and an incredibly clear line in the sand has now been drawn so we can finally start to believe it.

“The work is now to pick people up for the staff at the hub starts now and it’s a lot. For adults with autism and/or learning difficulties, it takes a lot, years even, for them to trust a process and a setting and to have the confidence to work on new skills and their jobs.

“To have been told their jobs aren’t enough or that the independence they have got from the hub wasn’t enough was very insensitive and felt a bit like victim shaming. There has been a real knock of confidence and trust that needs to be rebuilt.

“Ultimately, we do have to understand the failings as they have had such a huge impact on wellbeing and mental health. There has been a real disregard for the people at the heart of this.

"To take my brother’s case, this has all been so confusing for him. He has been really low and become quite mute for the past six weeks, which is so unlike him. He’s usually full of cheek, full of banter and fun so to watch him with his shoulders really on the floor has been hard.

“He has asked me so many times ‘for definite this time?’ ‘you’re not lying to me are you?’ but seeing him the night after I told him the news, he did seem lighter and that was beautiful to see.

"We have to hold a mirror up to the effects this news and how it has been handled has had though to talk about it or it could happen again.”

Consultations with the service users will continue but will take the form of deciding the kind of provision that will be offered at the hub going forward and ways this can be enhanced. Hayley has said that users have been assured that there will not a a drop in service.

Hayley added: “We are now looking forward to positive relationships moving forward as we have conversations about what positive additions we can make to the service. The service level must not drop, nothing must be taken away from it, it still has to available to the same people, with the same staff in the same setting. It’s now about what growth opportunities and positive additions could there be. We will have to see where these conversations take it. We have been assured that there will not be a service drop.

“I have to also extend a massive to thank you to the staff at the hub.

"For anyone who has watched any of the many videos we have put out, you can just see the beautiful relationships, the banter, the fun and the support bursting out of the screen. That just doesn’t happen overnight and it takes years.

“They really do provide a gold standard of care. They have kept everyone going and kept the positivity up. They have helped keep so many of the users distracted by focusing on fun, productive things while they are at the hub.

"They have been in such a tough position and they have shown such bravery and stood at the frontline of the shield in front of the users. We were able to take inspiration from that for this campaign.”