Social care crisis forces cash-strapped council to build its own care home

The Borough of Poole is to build its own care home in response to the social care crisis affecting the borough which it says makes the independent sector’s care costs ‘unaffordable’.

The council's cabinet members have recommended to Full Council plans for the local authority to develop its own independently-operated, energy-efficient, 80-bed care home providing specialist nursing and dementia care.

The care home would be operated independently under a contract aimed at helping Poole's residents who are unable to fully fund their own care needs.

Shaping the local care market

If approved at Full Council, the care home will be built on land in Mitchell Road in Canford Heath on land previously occupied by Mitchell House, a care home managed by Care UK. The care home closed in 2014, the council said "following the decision that it would not meet the future needs of those requiring a care home."

The local authority says the new home, which would be the first council-owned home in the borough for 30 years, would allow it to shape the local care market at a time when there is a shortage of suitable care provision in the local area.

Councillor Karen Rampton, cabinet portfolio holder for Adult Social Services, Borough of Poole, said: "One of the council's priorities is promoting the health and wellbeing of our residents, especially the most vulnerable.

“The population of older people in Poole is increasing and we are currently totally reliant on the independent care sector which is becoming increasingly unaffordable to the public sector.”

The Older People census update 2015 by Borough of Poole states numbers of over 65s are estimated to increase to 40,121 an increase of 19 per cent by 2025.

Retirement destination

The ‘Needs Assessment of residential and nursing care for people with dementia to 2015. Borough of Poole – 2011 update’ states “Poole is an area of attraction and appeal as a retirement destination, thus popular for inwards migration town. Older people in Poole comprise a larger share of the total population, around five per cent higher than for England and Wales.

Place people closer to home

In the last two years, the local authority has sourced and secured 635 permanent care home placements, of which 413 were in a Poole care home but a third of all placements were outside Poole (222 were within a 30 mile radius including locations such as Weymouth, Dorchester and Swanage).

Cllr Rampton said: "Developing a council-owned care home will allow us to achieve better value for money when placing residents in residential care and also improve our ability to place people closer to home, making it easier for friends and family to visit on a regular basis."

In the past two years, Poole has seen five homes close with the loss of 214 beds. A combination of factors contributed to the closures including financial viability, quality and regulation issues. Care homes have told the council they have recently seen an increase in operating costs. These costs include the purchase of specialist equipment, staffing to enable them to care for individuals with complex needs and insurance cover.

At the start of the year, the council published its 'Older People Nursing and Residential Care Home Strategic Review'.

'Ability to place people reducing month by month'

The January report stated that the council's 'the ability to place in a Poole care home is reducing month on month, to date currently no Poole care homes is willing to accept at or near the published rate and therefore it has been necessary to negotiate higher fee levels on an individual basis (known as top ups).'

At the time, there were 33 care homes for older people in Poole with a total of 1,340 bed spaces. The council purchases £12-13m care home placements annually and yet the report said: 'despite this; access to affordable beds in good quality care homes in the borough is extremely limited.'

The report added: ‘The cost to enter the care home market does continue to be a barrier, particularly for new and smaller operators. The main challenge is the high equity required and more cautious lending policies by the banks and the fee rates that local authorities can pay. Thus we are seeing new care home developments are targeting the private self-funding market. This national trend is demonstrated locally too.

It stated:‘The Care Act has placed new duties on local authorities to facilitate and shape their market for adult care. One of ambitions of the Care Act is for local authorities to influence and drive the pace of change for their whole market, leading to a sustainable and diverse range of care and support providers.’

The full business case for the new care home , which was approved by cabinet on 6 September will go to Full Council on 27 September.