Last year, I was asked by The Crescent, an organisation which provides support to people living with, or affected by HIV/AIDS, to become a Patron of their charity, and to become involved in the fundraising that goes with providing such services. I naturally jumped at the opportunity, having been moved witnessing the incredible help and support they provide it's service users.

Over the past 12 months, I have become fully aware of how difficult a situation organisations like The Crescent are finding themselves in, with local authorities pulling back the finance they make available to such services, with terrifying knock on affects that are far spread. But it needn't be that way...

HIV/AIDS support services in Hertfordshire have undergone a radical change in the last 12 months. For almost 25 years these services were provided by two agencies, one in the east and the other, The Crescent, in the west. The reason for this, in the main, was because of the geography of the county, coupled with the fact that transport links from east to west are very poor.

For many years this worked well, with The Crescent covering the west (where the majority of PLWHIV reside) working closely with the two major GUM clinics in St Albans and Watford General Hospital.

The Crescent is ideally situated in St Albans with excellent transport links to surrounding towns by road, and rail, and under 20 mins by train to central London. The other agency is situated in Ware, just outside Hertford, a small rural country town with considerably poorer access opportunities.

Funding for these services came from NHS Hertfordshire and Hertfordshire County Council in a joint commissioning arrangement lead by the County Council. Funding for the social care element came from the AIDS Support Grant (ASG) provided to each local authority for this purpose.

This grant was ring fenced, meaning that the local authority could only spend this money on HIV related support services. However this ring fencing was removed in late 2010 and as a result left the money vulnerable to reallocation for other purposes, unrelated to the original intention.

The grant was rolled into a larger grant or settlement, provided to each local authority, but the amount of the grant was still identified to indicate that it was provided for this purpose, and so local authorities should continue to spend it accordingly.

In late 2011 the National Aids Trust published a report highlighting the concerns of many, that local authorities were already siphoning off this money, or intending to do so, and that services were being cut as a result.

At the very time Lord Fowler, who was chairing a House of Lords Select Committee on HIV and Aids made a report from which he indicated a real need to increase investment in such services.

In late 2010 Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) decided to review services in the county. They initially suggested that a 25% saving would need to be made by both services and even though this could potentially cause problems, plans were put in place to accommodate this without impacting on front line services.

However in January 2011, HCC decided to cut all funding for The Crescent. They then awarded a contract to the other agency, Herts Aid, to provide a countywide service. This came as a shock, and somewhat of a surprise to The Crescent, given that the idea only a month before was to make savings. It was also a surprise that the agency chosen was the one located in the least accessible part, and in an area with the least PLWHIV in the county.

This decision was taken without any consultation to those affected. Even the council's own impact assessment, which is supposed to include the views of stakeholders and interested parties, took place over a weekend in the first week of January, appearing to be just a box ticking exercise.

The end result was a service that could never work, and has failed miserably. Services in the east are still as they were before the change, however in the west there has been very little of consequence offered for PLWHIV at all.

The Crescent is a member led organisation, where those living with HIV are employed as staff, and also are elected to the board of trustees, and are therefore by definition, representative of those most affected.

In early 2011 a survey of The Crescent's members asking if they wanted to transfer to the other provider brought a resounding no. Instead they insisted on fighting the decision, and so embarked on a campaign to do so.