A CHARITY intends to open a new day care facility despite serious concerns being raised over the standards of its first one in council inspections.

The Age Concern Day Centre in the Windmill Resource Centre, Windmill Road, Slough, is to be taken over by Slough Borough Council (SBC) from January 1 next year.

SBC inspectors rated the facility ‘red’ in a number of areas and separately The Food Standards Agency has given the facility a hygiene rating of ‘1’, meaning major improvement is necessary.

In an email from SBC to the centre manager of the Windmill Day Centre, Lorraine Hillis, seen by The Observer, it said: “The service has been put on red, due to a number of concerns in regards to DBS (staff disclosure) renewal, staff supervision and training matrix to be developed, improvements required in support planning and risk assessments, better recording on regulated activity and improvements in quality of the service.”

Alan Sinclair, director of adults and communities for SBC said: “Providing older people with high quality day opportunities is a top priority for the council and we have carried out an in-depth review to ensure this happens.

“We feel that by bringing the Windmill Resource Centre back in-house we can provide the best possible service to our residents.”

In response to the change of management, Age Concern Slough and East Berkshire (ACSEB) has stated that they will open its own, private, facility in the region.

In a letter to their clients, the CEO of ACSEB, Kevin Griffiths (pictured right), wrote: “Although we were contracted by Slough Borough Council to provide a day care service to Slough residents up to December 2018, they have now decided that they will take the service ‘in-house’ and operate it themselves. The Council has given us notice that they are cancelling the contract.

“To this end, we can confirm that we will be developing a new private day care service that will operate from our own premises and not the Windmill Road facility.”

A spokeswoman for Age Concern Slough and East Berkshire said: “The contract with Slough Borough Council was only for one year.

“There were a number of issues at the facility, it wasn’t a particularly good venue for ourselves.”

A spokeswoman for Slough Borough Council said: “It may have performed badly in inspection, but that’s not the reason we’re taking it over.

“The break clause in the contract was always included, because we’re doing a review of the entire service – which is why we decided to take over the centre.”

The new facility, the location of which is yet to be confirmed, is planned to open in January.