Derbyshire County Council has launched a public consultation as it prepares to refocus its adult care services by supporting more dementia patients and helping more people to stay at home after it controversially opted to sell eight care homes and close five day centres for the elderly.
The eight care homes the county council’s Cabinet agreed to cease operating and to sell include: Briar Close, at Borrowash; Castle Court, at Swadlincote; The Grange, at Eckington; Lacemaker Court, at Long Eaton; The Leys, at Ashbourne; New Bassett House, at Shirebrook; Rowthorne, at Swanwick; And Thomas Colledge House, at Bolsover.
And the five day centres the Cabinet agreed to close include: Blackwell Day Centre, at Blackwell; Fabrick Day Services, at Hilton; Jubilee Centre, at New Mills; Queens Court, at Buxton; And Valley View Day Centre, at Bolsover.
Cllr Natalie Hoy, Cabinet Member for Adult Care, said: “Ensuring we have the right support for those who need us most is a priority for the council and by redesigning our directly provided care services we can create a sustainable service to meet the needs of our residents.
“Our aim is to focus our in-house services on creating wraparound care for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers, including long-term specialist dementia care coupled with respite day and night breaks. As part of this, we will continue to run six day centres, including three in the community.”
The council launched a public consultation on December 2 into the proposed future use of some of its remaining homes and it will run until January 12, 2025.
It is considering operating four homes as specialist dementia care homes including: Florence Shipley, at Heanor; Meadow View, at Matlock; Oaklands, at Swadlincote, and Whitestones, at Chapel-en-le-Frith with each one except Whitestones having an integrated day centre.
Alternatively, it is considering operating two homes, Florence Shipley and Whitestones, as specialist dementia care homes and Meadow View and Oaklands would adopt a mixed care model.
Under both options, the council would cease to operate long-term residential and respite care at Ada Belfield, at Belper, The Staveley Centre, at Middlecroft, Staveley, and at the Thomas Fields. Care Centre, in Buxton.
However, under the council’s preferred option, Bennerley Fields care home, at Ilkeston, would no longer operate as a residential care home and would be repurposed with Staveley and Thomas Fields for hospital discharge beds to support the health and care system.
The council has argued that it needs to fill a gap in the market to support those with dementia and their carers while also helping with hospital discharge and unplanned hospital admission and while supporting as many people as possible so they can continue to live independently at home.
It also feels it needs 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.
The council has stated that it hopes the sale of eight care homes and the closure of five day centres will support changes in the way it provides in-house care services for older people.
These, according to the council, include creating ‘wraparound care’ for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers including long-term specialist dementia care with respite day and night breaks, while continuing to run six day centres while moving away from mixed-model care homes towards single-model care homes.
Cllr Hoy added: “We are one of the largest providers, if not the largest provider, of in-house care in the country, and with a decline in demand for traditional residential care we need to adapt our services to help support the growing number of people with dementia and their carers.
“It is vital we work more closely with our partners in health so we can help more people to remain at home and improve flow through the health and care system.
“We are consulting on options that would enable us to create settings focusing on jointly delivering a range of services with our partners to support timely discharge from hospital and prevent unplanned hospital admissions.”
Opposition Labour, Lib Dem and Green Party councillors, UNISON union campaigners and Derbyshire Labour MPs have all expressed their opposition to the Conservative-led council’s decision to sell eight care homes and close five day centres.
The six-week public consultation questionnaire can be found on the county council’s website – Further consultation to determine the future use of our remaining residential homes.
As part of the consultation, face-to-face meetings are being held with care home residents, families and carers and an online public meeting took place on December 4.
A further joint consultation on options for closer working with health partners is expected to be launched shortly.
The council is rolling out saving measures to manage a budget deficit of over £39m for the 2024/25 financial year after blaming reduced Government funding, the impact from the Covid-19 pandemic, inflation, and rising costs and demands including the growing demand for adults’ and children’s social care services.
