FUNDING of £350,000 to adapt a home so a disabled child can stay with their family is to be discussed today.

Ceredigion County Council’s cabinet will consider a report at its meeting (Tuesday, July 7) relating to a family who had been awarded £130,000 of capital funding in 2018 for house adaptations which had not been spent.

The report states that the “terms of this funding were considered unacceptable to the family” and no progress was made, with the current situation of no house build and none of the required support and care services available, resulting in a legal challenge against the council before the Court of Protection.

Members are being asked to note the allocation of £350,000 of capital funding with three exempt reports also due to be presented in private – a legal implications report, a housing report and a comprehensive social care report.

The decision to award the funding was taken by the cabinet member for housing services Cllr Dafydd Edwards and corporate lead officer for Porth Ceredigion Donna Pritchard on May 7 “due to the urgency of needing to respond to the court requirements.”

In the short term the capital funds and ongoing support funding is a more costly option for the council, states the cabinet report, but after approximately three years the initial outlay would be outweighed by lower costs providing supported care locally and avoiding an out of county residential placement that “would split up the family and be detrimental to the children concerned.”