DORSET Day Centres could offer more diverse activities in the future – with some being 'repurposed'.

An improvement plan is currently under discussion at Dorset Council with the aim of creating a more flexible service in the future for over 500 people who attend the 14 Care Dorset day centres across the county at a cost of just over £5million a year.

Although around a third are older people, the majority of users are adults in the 18-64 age group with learning disabilities.

Corporate director for adult commissioning and improvement Mark Tyson said the exercise is not about reducing or repurposing the day centres, although that might happen to some, but about offering a better service which is more flexible and proactive to local needs.

He told councillors that the re-modelled service could make use of other community building, even pubs, libraries, or parks, depending on what was wanted in each area.

The final plans will go to a Cabinet meeting in September with a view to commissioning new services from April 2025.

Cabinet member for adult social care Cllr Steve Robinson said the council wanted to get away from thinking that just because services had been provided in a certain way in the past, that would always be the way to do it: "We need to find new ways to integrate with the community and for people to come in and use our facilities – so that together we can develop communities which age well together,.. we want to keep that integration going. We know that as we get older our world can gradually get smaller and smaller," he told Tuesday's Dorset Council People & Health Overview Committee.

Mr Tyson told councillors that a 2023 survey saw almost 70 per cent of Day Centre users say that being with friends and doing interesting activities was important to them; a quarter said the building was important and 12 per cent said transport could be a barrier to what they wanted to do. The survey also highlighted the need for carers to have creative, respite options.

Mr Tyson said that many of the day centres across the county were under-utilised and he foresaw a future model which had less emphasis on buildings and more on services, with more connection between services and more fluid programmes of activities.

"We don't want people to think we are closing things – there will always be a place for specialist day centres… this is not about closing buildings, but responding to people's desires for more variety, integration and flexibility," he said.