I WOULD like to explain Derbyshire County Council’s vision for the future of care for older people across Derbyshire and clarify some points about our plans.
We want to provide the best care possible for our growing elderly population and have already opened our first stateof- the-art residential and community care centre in Staveley.
Building work has started on a second in Swadlincote and we are currently waiting for the go-ahead for a £107.03 million Government grant to build six more.
This is the largest reprovision of services for older people in the country, backed by the Department of Health, and we are very excited about these developments.
Each centre will be a hub for local services for older people and provide topquality care for our older people, especially those with complex needs, including dementia.
With these developments will come change, and we have had to look closely at all our current homes for older people, to assess whether they are fit for purpose and whether it is viable to keep them open with new, state-of-the-art homes opening in the same areas.
We will have to make some difficult decisions, and many of our current homes are not fit for purpose.
I look at it like this — you wouldn’t attempt to run a modern railway with steam trains.
Similarly, we cannot promise to offer the level of care we want to in some of these buildings that are old and in need of significant investment.
However, it is import to make the distinction between a building that is not fit for purpose and the quality of care that we are offering.
Our staff and the top quality care they offer in our residential homes is excellent and will continue to be so.
The Care Quality Commission ranks our homes as excellent or good because of the care that is on offer.
Our vision is to match the care offered by our staff with the quality of environment that people live in or visit.
These are people’s homes, workplaces and sites they come to for day care, health advice, information and respite.
It is imperative that we plan for the future.
We have already consulted on our plan to build residential and community care centres across the county and the feedback has been very positive.
I am concerned that certain issues around our development programme are being used to make staff feel uneasy and demoralised, and making residents and relatives feel unnecessarily anxious.
This is a long-term plan and will take years to come to fruition.
Nothing is going to happen overnight and I can assure people that no decisions will be made on any of our care homes without full consultation with residents, staff and relatives.
I would like to reiterate that no decisions have yet been made on the future of any of our care homes.
If people are anxious or have any questions, they should contact their local residential care home manager.
Charles Jones Cabinet member for adult care, Derbyshire County Council
