Cash-strapped Derbyshire council has agreed to sell-off a care home and convert two others into rehabilitation centres – despite a large protest with campaigners gathered outside the authority’s headquarters.
The Conservative-controlled council’s Cabinet approved plans at a meeting on February 20 to put the Ada Belfield care home, on Derwent Street, in Belper, on the open market as a going concern, and to cease operating long-term residential and respite care at The Staveley Centre, at Middlecroft, and Thomas Fields Care Centre, in Buxton, so these two homes can be converted to focus on rehabilitation beds.
Council Leader, Cllr Barry Lewis, told the meeting ‘this is quite an emotive topic in some communities particularly in Belper’ but he explained the process has been subject to an Equality Impact Assessment to ensure the council’s decision-making has been fair.
Cllr Lewis said: “Nobody comes into politics to do this sort of thing to close services. That is not what this is about. It’s refocusing what we have and cutting our cloth and the nature of care has changed dramatically over the last years and the background to this means that this is a really difficult area for local authorities to be involved in.”
Derbyshire County Council, which is managing a multi-million pound budget deficit, says it is refocusing its adult care services by supporting more dementia patients and helping more people to stay at home after already agreeing to sell eight care homes and close five day centres for the elderly.
However, Belper Together campaigners, who have submitted a petition with over 5,000 names, held a protest with others outside the council’s County Hall, at Matlock, to highlight their opposition to the Ada Belfield plans and to urge the council not to privatise the care home.
The campaigners claim the council has ridden ‘roughshod’ over the wishes of the town despite concerns and claims that one in four Belper residents have signed petitions against the plans.
But the council’s Cabinet approved the plans for the Ada Belfield Centre to be offered for transfer on the open market as a going concern for a period of up to eight weeks, and it also agreed that the council is to now cease operating long-term residential and respite care at The Staveley Centre and at Thomas Fields, so it can repurpose these two homes to focus only on rehabilitation beds known as hospital discharge beds.
It also formally noted an intention to explore entering into a Section 75 legal agreement to create closer working with health partners in the future.
Cllr Natalie Hoy, Cabinet Member for Adult Care, told the meeting the council needs to focus more on dementia care and helping others with ‘reablement’ to ensure quicker hospital discharges while achieving greater independence for patients.
She added Derbyshire is facing increasing financial pressures with an increase in demand for adult social care services while people are choosing to stay in their homes longer so when they do eventually go into residential care they have more acute needs particularly concerning dementia.
Cllr Hoy said there has been substantial interest in the market for Ada Belfield to provide more nursing care which the council is not legally allowed to offer and she stressed that current residents will be able to stay at no extra cost.
The council has argued it needs to fill a gap in the market to support people with dementia and their carers while helping with hospital discharges and unplanned hospital admissions while supporting as many as possible so they can continue to live independently at home.
It has stated it aims to work more closely with NHS partners by creating care settings which can focus on providing short-term reablement and assessment beds only, with a more effective and efficient service able to adapt to changes and growth in demand.
The council claims there is a decline in demand for traditional residential care but there is a need for more specialist care for the growing number of people in Derbyshire with dementia.
Planned changes in the way the council provides in-house care services for older people include creating what it calls ‘wraparound care’ for the growing number with dementia and their carers.
Cllr Lewis added: “It’s not an easy decision to make but I want to give some reassurance to the residents of Belper. Ada Belfield will remain open for residential care and individuals who want to stay there can stay there and it will not be closed.
“We will push for a local buyer with the add-on of specialist or nursing care which the council has been unable to provide.”
He added that the council will make sure the centre remains a community building and that means the council is committed to retaining the centre’s library and its future will be secured.
The award-winning Ada Belfield was opened only four years ago at a cost of over £11m but Derbyshire Conservatives have argued the care home faces a projected overall loss of over £2m and they have said its sale would be with an ‘uninterrupted continuum of care throughout the sale process and beyond’.
Belper Together Chairperson Keith Venables criticised the council’s financial management and he claims the council has made poor investment decisions.
During the protest, Mr Venables said: “We are here today to celebrate the high quality of Ada Belfield care home. We are protesting because we feel the council has made decisions over the past four years which has led them to close important assets like Ada Belfield.”
He added: “Four years ago about £11m was spent building it and now they are going to close it and sell it off to the highest bidder which is rubbish.”
Labour, Green Party and Liberal Democrat councillors, according to Belper Together, have been considering calling in the council’s decision for a scrutiny committee to consider before it can be implemented.
Green Party Derbyshire County Cllr Gez Kinsella, who represents Duffield and Belper South, has raised concerns about the consultation process and the financial justification for the sale of Ada Belfield.
Opposition Labour, Lib Dem and Green Party councillors, UNISON union campaigners and Derbyshire Labour MPs have also all previously expressed opposition to the council’s previous decision to sell eight care homes and close five day centres.
Derbyshire UNISON Branch Secretary Martin Porter raised concerns about the council ‘privatising’ its care homes and he feels it reflects the council’s need to save money before the end of the financial year but he claims this is a ‘bad investment for Derbyshire residents’ and it will create longer term problems.
Mr Porter also argued that Ada Belfield currently has staff with decades of experience while the private sector has the highest turnover of staff.
Belper Town Council had indicated that it wanted the facility to be retained by the county council because it feels the centre is such an important asset for residents.
Opposition Labour Group Cllr Joan Dixon told the Cabinet: “The people of Belper and neighbouring areas are deeply disappointed that the state-of-the- art Ada Belfield Home is proposed for sale this afternoon.
Cllr Dixon added: “In 2021, in the Conservative Manifesto, you promised that you would build on our innovative £30m Care Programme to provide new modern care homes. Furthermore, you reaffirmed that no care home will close without replacement provision reflecting modern care needs.”
After Cllr Dixon questioned whether the sale of Ada Belfield should be delayed to allow people to express their view at the May county election, Cllr Hoy said services need adapting and to postpone the decision until after the election would be unnecessary.
Cllr Hoy also said: “There has been substantial interest for Ada Belfield with more nursing care. I am confident a provider will continue running the Ada Belfield with no change of care.”
Labour County Cllr Anne-Frances Hayes, who opposed the council’s plans, said she was concerned about the changes which may involve patients having to be moved from long-term homes especially at Staveley and Buxton.
Cllr Hayes said: “Moving these patients from long-term homes is going to cause relocation stress that leads to anxiety, depression and disorientation and it can be lethal for dementia patients.”
The council considered views from two public consultations including one into the proposed changes to three of its remaining in-house care homes and a second into closer working with health partners.
Almost 800 people responded to the consultation into the future of Ada Belfield Centre, Staveley Centre and Thomas Fields, and the council received three petitions, and more than 350 responses were received concerning the issue of closer integration with Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust.
Cllr Lewis said that there have been some ‘challenging aspects’ during the council’s decision-making process and despite most people showing consideration with their comments on social media he accused some of being ‘appalling’ in the way they have attacked the council with a lot of personal comments.
The council says it has been implementing saving plans to manage a multi-million pound budget deficit caused by external factors outside its control including the growing demand for adults’ and children’s social care services. reduced Government funding, inflation, higher prices, rising costs and the national pay award.
