The Closing of Ny Allerødgård

It should be noted in advance that the independent institution Ny Allerødgård gave up at the end of 1998. As from 1 January 1999 the activities were taken over by the Frederiksborg County Council.

An account of the development that led up to this fracture has never been written. The task is a difficult one. Many details have never been made public. The task will be no fun, because it will revive much pain and sorrow between the involved parents and staff persons.

From the outset in 1982 the committee of the independent institution, its chairman and its first principal wanted to develop a home for the residents that could serve as an example to other groups with the same needs. This would include experiments and descriptions of the experience gained. However, staffing was experienced as narrow, only allowing for the daily duties to be done. No similar experience could be drawn upon; at that time homes for people with autism were an exception. Frederiksborg had no facility and no professional expertise to cooperate with.

During the first years of the nineties, counties were under pressure from the Danish Ministry of Finance to intensify their budget work and to control expenditure. In the Frederiksborg County the experts of pedagogy under the social administration took up the development of so called 'profile analyses' of the various institutions, the aim being to weight their needs for staffing needs for staffing and thereby ensure a 'just' distribution of the limited resources. Owing to ignorance, or unwillingness to understand the needs for development in the field of autism, the result was unfavourable to Ny Allerødgård: 25% of staff had to be given up!

Against this background, negotiations between the chairman of Ny Allerødgård and the management of the county's social administration led to a fatal disagreement. The county lost confidence in the independent institution's ability to run the home. In one stroke the county council - relying on its administration - removed 25% of the staff. In the local paper, county politicians called the chairman and the principal useless and incompetent. Carried out in practice, the reduction led to a series of protests from parents, staff and other persons observing the deterioration of daily life of the residents. However, it was all of no avail. The chairman stepped back, not wanting to be an obstacle, and later, the principal as well found it impossible to make ends meet under the conditions given. Staff fled with disastrous consequences for the residents.

In retrospect, it is obvious that this rough and heavy-handed decision killed the hope of Ny Allerødgård becoming an example for other counties. It meant a setback for the cause of autism in Denmark.

A new, temporary principal did his best to start anew. Parents found errors in the administra-tion's constructions and calculations (service personnel forgotten) and most of the staff resources were returned to the budget of Ny Allerødgård.

Concerning the taking on of a permanent principal, however, everything went wrong. A person without knowledge of autism and without abilities as a manager was hired - and soon dismissed by the committee. The county administration refused to acknowledge the conditions of the dismissal, and the county council gave notice to terminate the contract with the independent institution. Under these conditions, cooperation with the county administration was difficult. The committee saw the sufferings of the residents and suggested an abbreviation of the time limit laid down in the contract.

In 2000 the 15 residents moved away from the former farm buildings; ten moved into new buildings at Helsinge, further north in the county. The construction at Helsinge was made possible by new legislation minimizing the county's expenses. Occupation was set up in existing buildings a few km away. Room for the remaining five was found in various other facilities.