City of York Council is progressing plans to modernise its day care services to ensure that they meet the needs of local people now and in the future.

The modernisation programme will see the city's Yearsley Bridge and Huntington Road day care centres replaced with a range of community-based care packages tailored to meet the needs of each of the individuals who currently use them. This will make the modernised service more attractive to those who need day care but do not wish to attend a day centre.

Change is being driven by the government white paper 'Our health, our care, our say', which is a blueprint for social care for the next ten to 15 years. It advocates providing people with care packages matched to their individual needs in a community setting. Together with initiatives like the direct payment scheme, which enables service users to receive payments directly and arrange their own care, it also aims to give customers a greater degree of control over their care arrangements.

The Yearsley Bridge and Huntington Road day care centres are very dated and not ideally suited to their current use. In fact, Huntington Road was once a fever hospital and the nature of the service currently provided there dates back to the 1948 National Assistance Act.

In the latter part of 2006, the council began a lengthy process of consultation with the people who use each of the centres to ensure that they understand why modernisation is necessary and the benefits that it will bring. During the coming months, discussions with all services users and their families will progress so that an individual package of day care can be identified for each of them that will be best suited to their own unique needs.

Anne Bygrave, head of learning disabilities for the council, said: "We recognise that any kind of change is unsettling for people and that they will have lots of questions and concerns that they want to talk through with us.

"Over the coming months, a series of consultation meetings and events are planned and we will be talking to each service user about their needs. The over-riding aim is to give people greater control over the type of care they receive, and at the same time ensure that services are prepared to cope with the growing demands placed upon them by the ageing population."