Care homes should be built on NHS land to meet rising care demands

Land owned but not used by the NHS should be sold and built on to create more care homes and meet rising demand for residential care, the former care minister has said.

Currently around 30 per cent of acute hospital beds are unnecessarily taken up by people who do not need hospitalised care.

According to the commission, there is over 5,000 hectares of surplus land owned by the NHS which should be used to build care accommodation more suitable to many people’s needs.

Paul Burstow made the announcement at the launch of Demos’ Commission on Residential Care in Westminster exploring the future of the ‘housing with care’ sector.

A recommendation has been made to replace the term ‘residential care’ with ‘housing with care’ to better describe care options in the sector such as care homes, villages and supported living for older and disabled people.

Former care minister and chair of the Demos Commission on Residential Care, Paul Burstow MP, said: “As we are living longer lives, housing with care is going to become increasingly important in helping us stay independent, happy and healthy. It is vital that government wake up to this reality sooner rather than later and helps creates the right incentives to ensure older and disabled people have a genuine choice when they need to move.

“This report sets out the roadmap for change and contains a set of robust recommendations designed to ensure that high quality housing with care becomes a reality for everyone who needs it.”

The proposal focuses on improving the public perception of care by combining care homes with educational or community centres such as gyms, libraries and nurseries to give more people first hand experiences of care establishments.

Living wages for staff members, expanding the CQC’s role and an improved culture of transparency have also been called for in the commission.

Welcomed by the Independent Care Group (York and North Yorkshire), its chair Mike Padgham wants the Government to act on the recommendations of the commission.

Mr Padgham said: “This report and Mr Burstow’s words breathe new life into the residential care sector and help us all to start a fight back on its behalf.

“Residential care has seen its reputation damaged by well-publicised stories of poor care, which have completely overshadowed all the excellent, vital care that is delivered in care homes and must continue to be delivered in years to come.

“I very much hope that it will be seized upon by the Government, investigated and, with the right funding, be a catalyst for a revolution in the way we look upon residential care in this country.”

Care England chief executive, Professor Martin Green, said: “One of the very refreshing things about this commission was that it started from the premise that residential care was currently providing thousands of people with a high quality and personalised service, and it unequivocally acknowledged the contribution and quality of the vast majority of residential care.”

Skills for Care and National Skills Academy for Social Care chief executive Sharon Allen said: “We welcome this report from a well-respected group of commissioners as a very useful addition to the live debate about how we can offer citizens quality person centred care as our population ages.

“We particularly welcome the clear acknowledgment in the report that a skilled and knowledgeable adult social care workforce is central to delivering the changes the commission recommends.”

Janet Morrison, chief executive of Independent Age also welcomed the recommendations in the commission but said issues should be addressed if ‘housing with care’ is to have a positive impact.

She said: “The Commission rightly identifies a number of challenges that need to be tackled, including years of underfunding, before we can build a care sector of which we can all be proud.

“Ultimately, the future reputation of the residential care sector relies on addressing these big challenges, not simply re-branding residential care as ‘housing with care’, as the Commission recommends.”

Demos produce original research as one of the country’s leading cross party think tanks. The commission, which took a year to put together, was created by a partnership between academics, industry experts and care providers.

Chief executive of Demos, Claudia Wood, said: “Housing with care is a vital part of the vision outlined in the Care Act earlier this year. The time for small-scale solutions is over.

“Only by thinking big can we ensure that a 21st Century vision for care will be reached.”