Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar is surprised at the tone and timing of SNAG’s press release, given the positive nature of their recent meeting on the subject with Ministers Sacramento and Cortes last week.

During that meeting, held last Thursday, SNAG’s proposals were discussed at length and, indeed, to a great extent coincided with areas in which the Government also wants to progress. The meeting concluded with a commitment from the Government to give consideration to SNAG’s plans in detail, and await further information from SNAG before providing a response.

Government has also committed itself in support of the creation of the new Special Education Needs (SEN) facilities at the old St. Martin’s School site that will be run by the charity PossAbilities and will complement existing services already run by Government. PossAbilities have already done a presentation on what services they want to supply and the Government urges any person wishing to learn more about this to contact the charity directly.

The Government would also like to highlight the recent work and restructuring by the Care Agency that has been developed specifically to better meet current needs and the Care Agency continuously strives to improve standards in conjunction with best practice guidelines.

The Care Agency’s Community Learning Disability Team manage Respite Services for both children and adults and have been actively working to improve the service. The staff who are offering Respite and Home Support have been specifically identified for the Respite Team. They have received both in-house and bespoke training to work with children and adults with learning disabilities, in addition to the same mandatory core training as Care Agency employed staff, in accordance with Care Agency learning and development standards and policies. The Care Agency Care Workers are also given tailored guidance on the deliverance of care depending on the needs of the individual from the Respite Manager.

The Minister for Equality, the Hon Samantha Sacramento, MP, said: “I can understand that receiving the right service is very important, and the needs of all services users and their families are different.

“We have to bear in mind the tremendous progress that has been made in the field of disabilities in the last 10 years, but that being said, Government is continuously looking at ways of improving services further.

“Furthermore, I have no doubt that the new SEN centre which will be run by the charity PossAbilities will be of great use to service users. The Government will continue in its commitment to supporting this venture as well as to continuously improve its services going forward.”

ENDS