A WIRRAL charity has launched an urgent appeal for funds to help build more respite rooms and to support their centre.

Autism Together has issued the appeal as the charity warns the lack of respite care is a ‘crisis in the making’.

They argue the issue has become so critical that social workers have been 'begging' for help to find emergency placements for people with autism in crisis.

Their resources are being stretched as its admissions team are routinely having to turn away emergency cases that in the past they would have been able to accommodate.

CEO of Autism Together, Robin Bush, said: "We're receiving calls roughly every second week from social workers so desperate that they beg for our help.

“We want to help - and in the past we could - but our unit is so fully booked that it just isn't possible. It's incredibly frustrating as our staff are highly trained autism practitioners and we are well-equipped to cope with emergency admissions."

The charity also claims the system is already under pressure, but that problems arise when social workers, largely from the North West, are looking for emergency placements.

This may happen if someone with autism is endangering themselves or others or if an existing residential placement has broken down.

Autism Together runs The Ferns, one of the only purpose-built, autism-specific respite units in the region.

This seven bedroom unit currently services around 75 families, who receive respite funding packages from their local authority which they then use to pay for overnight stays for their family member with autism. Families are advised to book up to a year ahead, with bookings already being taken now for 2018.

The charity is now hoping their urgent campaign will help to raise funds to build two additional rooms at The Ferns. This would increase its respite capacity by 20 percent.

Andy Ashbridge, whose son Jack, 16, has very complex autism, behavioural issues and obsessive compulsive disorder and uses the Ferns for one or two nights a week, said he feared for the future of respite services.

He explained: "There are many children coming up through the system - quite a lot of them with severe autism - and there's going to be nowhere for them to go. It's a time bomb waiting to go off.

"As a family you can't cope without respite. You just cannot do it. It's not possible. Unless there's a light at the end of the tunnel, you just wouldn't be able to cope."

John Munn's son Alexander, 22, stays at The Ferns every weekend. He said, "I can't imagine what parents do if they are told they have nowhere to send their son or daughter.

“Alexander is mentally demanding - he drains you.

“If they took that respite away I dread to think what effect it would have on us - the family would go into freefall, I think. He loves going to The Ferns - we love him going - and we have a break."

Robin Bush added: "The lack of respite care in our region is a crisis in the making.

“We know there's a shortfall nationally of nearly £1bn in social care funding. We're seeing this play out locally with the closure of a well-established, council run respite provision.

“As a not-for-profit provider, we'll move heaven and earth to support our families and to try to fulfil our professional obligation to help social workers when they need emergency provision.

“We hope that our fundraising appeal will be well-supported and that we can begin our extension work at the Ferns very soon."

To donate to The Ferns project please visit www.justgiving.com/autism-together/donate