Parents state there is ‘no other option’ for survival if the centre which looks after their disabled children closes this year.

Nascot Lawn Respite Centre, Langley Road, Watford, which looks after the most vulnerable people in our society, is due to close on October 31.

During a full county council meeting yesterday at County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford, all officers united in voting to try to keep the centre open until March 31 next year.

But parents state that this is not enough, as over the years both they and their children have learned to trust the staff at Nascot Lawn and know they are safe and loved at the centre.

If the resource is taken away, there is currently no other respite centre in the county which provides the medical care sufficient to deal with the children.

During the meeting Angelina Sclafani-Murphy entered with her son Liam, eight, who also relies on help from the centre.

She said: “Liam has Downs Syndrome, epilepsy and chronic lung disease. He is oxygen dependent, he is fed through a gastrostomy tube, he needs regular suction and he is non-verbal.

“But he is my son. I love him. I take care of him. I gave birth to him. I love him. We as parents want to take care of our children, but we need to take care of ourselves too.

“There is no other option other than Nascot Lawn. He goes somewhere that he is safe and loved. How are they going to explain that they are taking this away from him?

“This place is the beating heart that keeps our families going, but right now I feel like I am ready to have a heart attack.”

Councillors voted unanimously on an amended motion to try to save the centre until at least March 31 to ensure that families were properly assessed and provisions were in place.

Cllr Teresa Heritage for children’s services said: “We fully appreciate this is an extremely anxious time for families and are working closely with partners, staff and parents to minimise the impact of this decision.

“We have taken legal guidance and it is clear from this that there is a shared duty to meet the support needs of disabled children and their families on both the county council and HVCCG, depending on the identified need.

“The county will extend the commissioning of Nascot Lawn services, hopefully in partnership with HVCCG, past 31 October and with funds taken from contingencies, until such time as suitable alternative provision is secured for these families and their children.”

The CCG was expected to start contacting parents yesterday to start arranging assessments so that families would not be left devastated by the impact of closing the centre.

Councillors mentioned that they were not aware that this process had yet started and in the public gallery, parents sat shaking their heads to indicate they had not been contacted.

Herts Valley CCG spokesperson Louise Manders said: “We want to have an ongoing dialogue with parents and carers and last month invited those from the Herts Valleys CCG catchment area to meetings with senior representatives from the CCG and the county council to explain the position of our two organisations and to hear from families.

“Parents and carers will now have an opportunity to feed back individually about the needs of their child and their family through the joint health and social care assessments that we are looking to completed over the summer.

“We welcome the county council’s decision to extend the funding as something that will support the transition to a county council service.”