Surrey care homes at risk of closure
Future uncertain for county's council run care homes
Surrey County Council is considering closing some or all of its eight care homes in the county.
The authority is consulting the public on whether to modernise the homes of more than 170 older people or help them find a new one.
All of Surrey’s council run care homes were rated Good by the Care Quality Commission watchdog in recent years, but each building was said to be “beyond its optimal economic lifespan” when surveyors Savills inspected their conditions last year.
During the pandemic, admissions reduced across all eight homes and they are running well below capacity with only two in five beds full. The homes can accommodate 433 people and were occupied by 173 last month.
The homes being consulted on are: Abbeywood, Ash Vale; Barnfield, Horley; Birchlands, Englefield Green; Chalkmead, Merstham, Redhill; Heathside, Woking; Keswick, Great Bookham; Meadowside, Staines; Orchard Court, Lingfield.
In yesterday’s (October 12) Surrey County Council meeting, Councillor Robert King (Lab & Co-op, Egham) asked the leader for assurances – but was given none – that the number of care beds in Surrey would be kept the same.
He said: “I hope he will agree that a mixed market system is the only way to provide the essential care for our residents in residential care homes.”
County leader Tim Oliver spoke of the possibility of repurposing the care homes for another use.
He said: “Of course we will look at what is the requirement, I think we have about 13,000 care beds currently in this county, which is one of the highest across the country.
“I don’t know what the demand will look like as we go forward, but it may well be that we’re able to use those facilities, repurpose those for other things in terms of healthcare delivery.
“And we have of course the discussion with Government about how we’re going to equalise the cost of delivery of care across the self-funders and those that we pay for, and that is going to be a very difficult conversation.”
After the meeting Cllr King said he found it “very worrying”.
He said: “The big concern is whilst those care homes do need work and substantial investment, simply closing them will force residents to move and they will be forced into the lowest level of the private sector.
“If people are paying extra National Insurance they should expect a decent level of county-provided care in their old age.”
Cabinet member for adults and health Sinead Mooney wrote to all councillors on Monday to inform them the county council’s executive director of adult social care had taken the decision to consult.
She said: “We want to ensure that care meets the future needs and aspirations of our ageing population so that people can lead independent and fulfilling lives for as long as possible.”
The authority transferred management of all its care homes to Anchor Hanover Trust in the late 1990s but took back responsibility two-and-a-half years ago.
It is now focused on providing ‘extra care’ apartments to keep people living more independently with support on hand, and aims to provide 725 of these by 2030.
The eight homes were all built at least 40 years ago and mostly have shared bathrooms, with only those in Horley and Lingfield having about 20 per cent ensuite.
In the consultation document a council spokesperson said: “Over the last two years it has also become increasingly evident that shared facilities present a challenge when managing the control of infections such as norovirus, flu and Covid-19.”
The three options being consulted on are:
Maintain and sustain some or all of the eight residential care homes and continue to meet building compliance standards
Modernise and refurbish some or all of the eight residential care homes for older people owned and operated by the council, in which case residents may need to be moved from the homes to enable works to be completed.
Support residents to move to an alternative care home and close one or more of the residential care homes.
Barnfield in Horley, for example, costs £797 per week to continue operating as it is, but partially modernising facilities and reducing the number of bedrooms would see the cost rise to £1,125 per week.
It is currently a challenge for social care providers in the county to recruit, said Rebecca Pritchard, chief executive of Surrey Care Association, adding that over three quarters of their members have vacancies they are “really struggling to fill”.
She said: “And for some of them that has meant that they can’t take additional work, from the county council to private, both in care homes or home-based care, because we simply can’t get the staff.”
The consultation is open here and will and run until January 5, 2022. Feedback will be reported to Surrey County Council’s cabinet in February 2022.