Councillor Clare Welsby is the group leader of Ealing Green Party. She writes of the recent closure of Dementia Concern and raises concerns over how local knowledge and expertise will be lost though its closure after more than 40 years service to helping and supporting Ealing residents.
“The loss of such a long-established charity serving people living with dementia, their carers, and families in Ealing for more than 40 years is extremely concerning, as is the short notice period for this closure.
“As a newly elected councillor, I note Councillor Paul Driscoll, Ealing Council’s cabinet member for healthy equal lives’, comment in EALING.NEWS that: “The sad and unexpected news that Dementia Concern will suddenly close will be very upsetting and unsettling for everyone who uses, and benefits from, their services in the borough” [and that the council] “are working diligently with our NHS partners and Dementia Concern to ensure support can be provided to the people who use, and rely on, the service.”
“This closure may have been unavoidable for the charity due to its financial unsustainability; however, questions need to be asked about how Ealing Council could have worked with this local and long-established charity to provide support at an earlier stage to avoid this “sad and unexpected” closure. How they could have worked together to ensure Dementia Concern could have remained sustainable.
“Or if this was not possible to ensure a planned transition to an equivalent service for those who have relied on this service; and early support for all those using and benefiting from their services to minimise distress to vulnerable people and their families. Was this closure unexpected to the Council and its NHS partners? If so, why?
“As well as the inevitable distress caused to people living with dementia, their carers, and families; a wealth of local knowledge and expertise will be lost though the closure of such a longstanding service.
“As recently as March this year Ealing’s Health & Adult Social Services Scrutiny Panel (17th March 2026 publicly available); were presented with Ealing Council, NHS and Voluntary Sector’s ‘Partnership vision to support the sector as part of the Health & Wellbeing Strategy 2023-2028’ including:
“‘Putting communities at the heart of everything’, ensuring that we have ‘Systems and structures that leave no one behind’ and that we are ‘Connecting the building blocks of health and wellbeing’ – all of these require working closely with the voluntary sector [….]’.
“‘Supporting VCS [Voluntary and Community Services] capacity building – capacity building is the process of strengthening the skills, resources, systems, and structures that the VCSE [Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise sector] need to remain effective, sustainable, and able to fulfil their mission in a changing environment. (my emphasis in bold and underlined) Appendix 1 Voluntary and Community Services.pdf
“Given this shared council, NHS and voluntary sector vision for Ealing should this longstanding Charity and voluntary sector service have had to close so suddenly?”
