Help to stop council cuts for people with learning disabilities in Coventry

Coventry City Council has come up with a list of tough savings proposals to consider ahead of setting its budget in February 2025.

Among those proposals, the council wants to cut money for voluntary sector services that help people with a learning disability who do not qualify for council support.

Austerity has meant that the threshold for getting help from public sector services gets higher as money gets tighter – leaving a vast number of people trying to either cope alone or with family members, if they have them, because they now do not qualify for help from the council.

Bold black text next to an illustration of a hand holding a megaphone says 'Help stop council cuts for people with learning disabilities!' It is raising awareness of the public budget consultation survey for 2025/26 that is running in Coventry until 28 January.
Click the image to have your say in the budget cuts consultation survey by 28 January.

The proposed funding cuts mean there could be about half as much money (45 per cent less) available for voluntary sector services helping people with learning disabilities – like Help and Connect by Grapevine, which helps 80 people a year.

We estimate there to be over 7,000 people with a learning disability living in Coventry based on national research by Mencap.

The kinds of people we help are adults who are living independently but on the verge of coping.

They may be struggling with their mental health, have come to us for help with housing issues, debt, falling behind with payments, getting scammed or exploited financially, or for other reasons.

We help them to:

  • Get out of crisis
  • Make a plan for their lives
  • Solve problems
  • Have more people to turn to with a problem
  • Stay safe
  • Stay healthy
  • Get and keep a job
  • Be less isolated
  • Make friends
  • Have a better life

Cutting voluntary sector support will make their lives even harder.

Grapevine CEO Clare Wightman said: “Whether it’s Grapevine providing this support or some other charity, if the proposals go through there is going to be half as much money on the table to help this group of people.

“All of us are really worried. Exploitation, scamming, abuse, financial hardship, ill health – all the things we help to stop, will carry on unchecked.

“We are not against a balanced budget and we sympathise with and understand the situation. But we think this is the wrong cut.

“And it won’t even save money because when people fall into crisis and can’t cope, the council, housing, police, NHS end up stepping in anyway and it costs even more money to do that.”

Support the campaign to stop the cuts

If you care about people who get no council support getting help from organisations like Grapevine, you can take action in the following ways:

  1. Have your say while there is still time. Take the council’s budget consultation survey by clicking this link. It closes on 28 January (more information is available from the council here). The survey will ask you what you think about all the cuts – if you want to talk just about the cuts to help for people with learning disabilities, you must say: Reference number 25.
  2. Go to a council consultation meeting – either online on 15 January (5:30-7pm), or in person on 23 January (5:30-7pm at the Council House). Click here to register.
  3. Contact your ward councillor to express your concerns about the impact of this cut. Click here to find your local councillor using your postcode.
  4. Sign and share our petition calling for the council to review its proposal (reference 25 on the list) to reduce funding to Grapevine by 45 per cent in 2025/26.
  5. Share this article and our posts as widely as possible. You can quote our campaign using the hashtag #Reference25 (the budget cut proposal referring to Grapevine’s services) on social media.

Almost 100 people joined us for a Coventry Cuts online information briefing. We are also talking to Coventry councillors and helping others do the same.

We know people share our worry about resources potentially being taken away from people with learning disabilities, some of the most vulnerable in our city. Please support the campaign to stop this if you can.

Contact Mel Smith at msmith@grapevinecovandwarks.org if you have skills or insight to share, would like to join our demonstration, or need support talking to your local councillor, completing the consultation survey or joining a consultation meeting to express your concerns about the cuts.

Click each image in our gallery below to enlarge.