West Sussex County Council is removing £250,000 annual funding for the disability advocacy charity Impact Initiatives which helps more than 450 vulnerable people a year with learning disabilities, autism, physical disabilities, sensory disabilities and acquired brain injury.
Liberal Democrat councillors in West Sussex say they are ‘horrified’ at the funding cuts and Victoria Littlejohn, a committee member of Asperger’s Syndrome Self Advocacy West Sussex, said: “This ensures that the entire disability advocacy service in West Sussex will end after September.”
She said that Impact Initiatives provided a ‘vital’ service. “Any problem a disabled adult may be facing, this service helps them to fight for their rights. This has included problems such as learning disabled parents about to lose their babies to foster care; people about to be made homeless; people going hungry and in need of referrals to foodbanks.
