A LEADING SHROPSHIRE respite care provider which helps hundreds of elderly and vulnerable people in their own homes will be axed next year.

The decision to close Crossroads Care Shropshire, will also see 35 jobs lost. The Newport-based service, which provides care for people with disabilities and mental and terminal illnesses, will shut in March 2011.

And the decision to scrap the service, in operation since 1991, will leave the charity’s 350-strong client list without any respite care.

The national charity, which allows each regional office to operate individually, today confirmed the closure.

Crossroads Care Shropshire Chief Executive Jo Hesketh said the charity could no longer sustain itself.

She said: “The board of trustees has made the decision on a local level because we simply don’t have the money to sustain the service anymore.

“We get most of our funding from local authorities so Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council and a bit from the Primary Care Trust and that funding has not dropped.

“But like most charities we have a reserve where we must be able to cover ourselves should we get into any trouble and we are now at that stage where it won’t cover us.”

Mrs Hesketh added that moves would be made to safeguard the county’s network of clients who receive care, as well as the staff employed by the charity.

She said: “We will still operate until March and hopefully we can open up talks with another Crossroads service which borders us to take some of the clients.

“There is currently ongoing discussions with that as there is with what will happen to the staff who are all full-time.

“There is definitely a fear that people will lose their jobs.”

Crossroads Care Shropshire was due to mark its 20th anniversary next year and the national organisation is Britain’s leading provider of support for carers and the people they care for.

The charity has 130 regional providers including ones based in Staffordshire, Mid Wales and Wolverhampton.

By Alex James