Third sector to the rescue: how a charity saved a small failing care home

As a result of the charity's takeover, not only were the residents at a Yorkshire residential home for people with learning disabilities saved the trauma of having to move out, but under new management staffing levels more than doubled and their pay was upped to the Living Wage.

Few things could be more alarming for a frail and vulnerable person in residential care than the news that the place they like to call home - where they feel settled and secure - is to close. What will become of them, where will they go, and who will take care of their often complex needs?

Recent research has revealed that in England there has been a wave of closures of smaller care homes since 2011 – a tendency that sadly looks likely to continue as costs continue to rise and cuts in local authority spending begin to bite.

One charity in Yorkshire – Harrogate Skills 4 Living Centre - helped buck this trend last year by taking over a failing residential care home for twelve adults with learning disabilities and ensuring that it not only prospers but is fit for purpose for the future.

The home, Brackenley in Harrogate, hit the newspaper headlines a few months back, having been reprimanded by the CQC for its staff calling residents “sweetie” and “darling.” The home argued cogently that it was a case for individual preference and pointed out that all residents who were called by pet names had stated clearly that that this was fine by them.

Local interest

As chief executive Stephanie Kirkman Meikle is the first to admit, it helped greatly that Harrogate Skills 4 Living Centre knew many of the residents well before they took over as it is an adult education centre and community hub for people with learning disabilities. The centre had also been managing the training of the staff for some time. “In many ways it was a perfect fit,” says Ms Meikle. “It fitted with our ethos and mission – and at only three miles away from our centre – it seemed a natural progression.”

The purchase of Brackenley was funded through social investment funding. “We were actually the first in the country to access the Community Investment fund,” says Ms Kirkman Meikle. Launched in February 2014, this fund invests significant amounts (from around £250,000 up to £1m) in community-based, locally led organisations which are providing essential support and services to improve the well-being of residents, particularly those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged.

It’s not just a question of being a willing receptor of funding, however. Ms Kirkman Meikle points out that any charitable organisation comes under a great deal of scrutiny. “We have to report to the Charities Commission as well as Companies House and the Community Investment Fund. We have to measure social impact in terms of such things as community involvement and well being.”

Despite this she feels that a charity that happens to be a residential home owner is in a favourable place. “The great thing about the third sector is that we are in a unique position, we are looking out exclusively for the needs of the beneficiaries – in this case the residents of Brackenley – and are not in this for private profit. We are very flexible and we can squeeze margins. We are used to having limited funds and making them go as far as possible,” she says.

What she means is that apart from local authority money, there is an additional range of potential funding open to charities that includes fundraising and applying for grants. So far, the centre has obtained grant funding to build a garden retreat-cum-quiet chill zone for Brackenley residents and it has also invested more than £10,000 into a state-of the art wetroom with fibre optic lights, underfloor heating and a Japanese-style hygiene station.

Being a not-for-profit organisation also gives a freedom as to how the budget is apportioned. Ms Kirkman Meikle says: “When we took over there were fifteen staff, now there are 35, so our wages bill is significant. As a board we took the decision to pay only the Living Wage.

“In the charity sector there is even more need to be ethical about wages.”

Lessons learned

Barely a year has passed since the ‘rescue’ so Ms Kirkman feels that it’s too early to be prescriptive about what makes for good management, but does say that at Brackenley “there’s a new focus on well being and involvement in the community.” This has in part been helped by a restructure of the staffing and the taking on of staff who specialise in autism.

“We’ve got a good governance structure – we meet on a monthly basis and I also think it’s important to keep a good dialogue open with health and social care services.

“First and foremost, though, you have to have the right heart for it, otherwise there’s no point in getting involved. You need good staff that you can rely on and who can go the extra mile, even if this involves changing the way they work.

“Your monitoring systems also have to be excellent. Once we had taken over Brackenley, we changed the way care plans were written – made them more accessible and understood. A care plan should be understood by everybody – you need to understand the whole person -- and anyone, be they carer, supervisor or relative, should be able to pick up the care plan and be able to understand the whole person easily.”

Social investment funds notwithstanding, could third sector takeovers of small struggling residential homes be the shape of things to come? Ms Kirkman Meikle says: “If you are local and have local knowledge of the home or whatever and have good governance and knowledge – then a third sector organisation can make an excellent job of it.”