For the past few months we’ve been in intensive negotiations with a provider to take over the running of the residential homes as a going concern.
And although we’ve done absolutely everything to progress the sale, in the end it wasn’t possible.
This is not the result we’d hoped and planned for and work is now under way to support our residents to find new homes.
We know this is extremely upsetting news for all our residents, their families and our hard-working care colleagues, especially coming at this time of year in the run-up to Christmas.
The health and wellbeing of our residents – as well as our colleagues – is our top priority and we will continue to do everything we can to support them through this difficult time.
The care homes affected are: Briar Close in Borrowash; Castle Court, Swadlincote; The Grange, Eckington; Lacemaker Court, Long Eaton; The Leys, Ashbourne; New Bassett House, Shirebrook; Rowthorne, Swanwick and Thomas Colledge House, Bolsover.
The focus of our in-house care homes is now on providing wraparound care for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers alongside closer working with health partners to increase the number of community support beds to help with timely discharge from hospital.
Another of our care homes, Ada Belfield in Belper, is currently being marketed as a going concern with us looking to transfer the care home to a provider with a proven track record. We will offer it for lease and retain the building. The lease would cover the whole site, including the care home and library, with the leaseholder required to sub-let the library back to us at no cost.
We plan to consult collectively with employees and trade unions in the new year.
We’ve issued a media release which will give you more information.
There’s a wide range of wellbeing support for colleagues which can be accessed on Our Derbyshire.