The mother of a special needs adult has criticised the island’s lack of resources, claiming clients are being neglected.

And the woman said the only specialist unit, the K. Margaret Carter Centre, was decades behind international standards and had contributed to a decline in her daughter’s condition.

The parent, who asked not to be named, said: “My daughter started to lose her skills in the first two years.”

The former Opportunity Workshop, renamed in June 2015 after an activist for the disabled, was designed to provide clients with work experience under a merger of services.

But the parent said the level of care “plunges” for clients who move to the health ministry-run centre from the Dame Marjorie Bean Hope Academy, which is run by the education ministry.

She added: “They gain weight, they lose their balance — they lose everything they’ve learnt. There’s no future for them, no goals.”

The woman’s 28-year-old daughter has multiple disabilities including hearing loss, vision problems, cerebral palsy and a mental age of two to five.

But she added: “That doesn’t mean that she isn’t smart.

“What I want from this Government is a commitment to make it a priority to provide the services these children deserve — goals to work on, so they can be excited to come back the next day.

“Instead my daughter is stuck doing puzzles every day. She doesn’t want that. She is bored.”

The parent said an independent assessment from overseas of the island’s special needs care should be carried out.

She added: “It’s going to take ten, 15 years to get us to an international standard of care. We are decades behind.

“My daughter is not as high functioning as some. But I see children in the centre who are high functioning.

“You know what they’re doing for most of the day? Playing with magnetic blocks.

“It’s a waste of a life. The other day a parent told me, these are the forgotten children. We aren’t a part of society. And it’s true.”

The new Progressive Labour Party Government includes a Junior Minister for Disability, Senator Tineé Furbert, a registered occupational therapist who listed healthcare, education and disability rights as her priorities when she was announced as an election candidate in May.

David Burt, the Premier, spoke of “an opportunity to include people who are differently able in this Government’s priorities” when she was appointed last week.

Asked if she felt optimistic, the woman told The Royal Gazette: “I do. But talk is one thing and action is another.

The mother said that the centre was the subject of “spin” and that the variety of services promised in November 2014, when the Orange Valley Centre merged into the Opportunity Workshop on Roberts Avenue, had not materialised.

She added that the centre lacks adequate support services, case workers and paraprofessionals, while the building itself is ageing and, in some areas, lacked basic amenities — including air conditioning for an assembly hall. The centre has had no permanent administrator for two years, which she called “incomprehensible”.

The woman said case workers were burdened with several clients each — and her daughter received only two hours’ occupational therapy a week.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health said it had been “working with relevant partners to address concerns”.

She added: “The hiring freeze and recruitment challenges in recent years led to delays in securing a permanent manager/administrator since November 2014, which has led to some difficulties that are now being addressed successfully.

“A management team has been in place since June, resulting in a raft of improvements in the physical plant, the programme and staffing levels, though this work is not yet complete.

“Work continues to secure permanent staffing and the centre was temporarily moved for the summer so that essential facility maintenance and upgrades could be undertaken.”

She added that the centre was “under review”, with the ministry “conscious of the access and physical infrastructure challenges that need to be addressed in the long term”.

“At present, the ministry is working closely with community partners in learning disabilities to determine a long-term vision and strategy for services for persons with intellectual disabilities. This will create greater synergies between services and improve adult services. A visioning workshop was held last month, and follow up is taking place in August,” she said.

The parent claimed the ministry was “spinning their words”.

She added: “With whom did they have this visioning workshop? We had a parent meeting in June but it was to update parents. The minister was supposed to be there and wasn’t.”