County Council seeks views on future shape of care services

Derbyshire residents are being invited to have their say on how county council care services could be run in the future.

On Thursday 14th November, Derbyshire County Council’s Cabinet agreed to a range of measures which will support changes in the way it provides in-house care services for older people, including creating wraparound care for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers, including long-term specialist dementia care coupled with respite day and night breaks, continuing to run six day centres, and moving away from mixed model care homes, where both long-term and short-term residents are cared for, toward single model care homes.  

It also agreed to consult further on the future use of some of its homes.

Cabinet was told that a new model of care was needed to fill a gap in the market to support those with dementia and their carers while also helping with hospital discharge and unplanned hospital admission.

They also heard that to create a sustainable adult care service and support as many people as possible to remain living independently at home, the council needed to work more closely with NHS partners to improve flow through the health and care system. This would mean creating care settings to focus on providing short-term reablement and assessment beds only, creating a more effective and efficient service.

Derbyshire County Council’s cabinet member for adult care Councillor Natalie Hoy said: “Ensuring we have the right support for those who need us most is a priority for the council and by redesigning our directly provided care services we can create a sustainable service to meet the needs of our residents. 

“Our aim is to focus our in-house services on creating wraparound care for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers, including long-term specialist dementia care coupled with respite day and night breaks. As part of this, we will continue to run six day centres, including three in the community."

Cabinet agreed to offer eight of the council’s care homes for sale as going concerns and to hold a public consultation into the future use of some of its remaining homes.

Councillor Hoy added: “We are one of the largest providers, if not the largest provider, of in-house care in the country, and with a decline in demand for traditional residential care we need to adapt our services to help support the growing number of people with dementia and their carers. 

“It is vital we work more closely with our partners in health so we can help more people to remain at home and improve flow through the health and care system. 

“We are consulting on options that would enable us to create settings focusing on jointly delivering a range of services with our partners to support timely discharge from hospital and prevent unplanned hospital admissions.”

The two options within the proposed consultation outline the following alternative options for the future use of the remaining residential care homes. Under option one, four homes would operate as specialist dementia care homes - Florence Shipley, Meadow View, Oaklands and Whitestones - with all except Whitestones having an integrated day centre. 

Under option two, two homes would operate as specialist dementia care homes – Florence Shipley and Whitestones – with Meadow View and Oaklands adopting a mixed care model.

Under both options, the council would cease to operate long-term residential and respite care at Ada Belfield, The Staveley Centre and Thomas Fields. However, under the council’s preferred option, Staveley and Thomas Fields would be repurposed, alongside Bennerley, for hospital discharge beds (CSB), to support the health and care system. 

Councillor Hoy added: “Alongside our system partners, we’ve identified Bennerley as ideally situated geographically to support well-integrated assessment and reablement.”

The six-week public consultation around the future shape of care services opened on Monday 2nd December and runs until 12th January 2025 and local people are being asked to have their say. The questionnaire can be found on the county council’s website - Further consultation to determine the future use of our remaining residential homes.

As part of the consultation, face-to-face meetings are being held with care home residents, their families and carers.

A further joint consultation on options for closer working with health partners is expected to be launched shortly.