A RESPITE care facility offering vital support to families of young adults with complex needs will remain open until at least September 2026.

Newton House on the edge of Bath is the only place in the area where people with the most severe care needs who live with their families can access overnight respite care, a short stay away from home so their full-time carers can have a short break. But care provider Dimensions, which runs Newton House, said it had become unaffordable.

Now the Bath and North East Somerset Council has said that Newton House will remain open until the end of September in 2026 while it puts the contract for a replacement service out to tender. Parents had originally been told by letter in November that it would close at the end of January this year — but it was pushed back after an outcry from parents.

Council cabinet member Alison Born said: “We know how important Newton House is to the families who use it. We are committed to keeping that support going while we work on a long-term plan. We’re grateful to the families and carers who’ve worked with us, and to Dimensions for agreeing to keep the service running until next September. This gives families some peace of mind.

“I also want to reassure everyone that future respite care will stay within Bath and North East Somerset, and that the needs of families will be at the heart of every decision. There won’t be any gaps in support.”

Four family representatives were part of the council working group which recommended that Dimensions continue running the service until a new provider could be found.

Wendy Lucas, whose daughter Rhiannon is 28 and has attended Newton House a couple of nights a week for ten years, said: “The process has gone some way to rebuild the trust that was shattered last Christmas.”

Speaking at a meeting of the council’s scrutiny panel on children, adults, health and wellbeing on June 16, Ms Lucas said parents understood that the council needed to balance its budget.

She said: “We realise that contracts must go out to test the market, that we cannot hang on to Newton House forever. But it has to be hung on to until that process has been worked through. We cannot have a gap in services. We cannot survive as families with a protracted gap where we don’t have access to respite.”

The young adults who attend Newton House are the most vulnerable people in the area, with extremely high care needs and often literally no voice of their own. Their stays at Newton House can be the only time their families can get a full night’s sleep or carry out household chores.

Council officers said that a new provider would be secured at least three to four months before Newton House closes in September 2026.

But scrutiny committee member Lesley Mansell (Radstock, Labour) said: “We know that changing things costs money. So what’s the cost of closing down one contract and then setting up another one?”