Consultation on Lower Ridge Care Home 2018

Purpose	Lower Ridge is an older people's residential care home in Burnley that is owned and managed by Lancashire County Council. A report went to councillors on 12 April 2018 and it was agreed to start a consultation on the possible closure of Lower Ridge during 2018. The building itself dates from 1967, and has a layout that makes it increasingly difficult to meet modern quality standards and older people's expectations. Lower Ridge has the capacity to accommodate 35 older people, however, only 19 older people are currently permanent residents there. It is believed this relatively low occupancy is a reflection of the state of the building, and particularly the living accommodation for older people. Despite the accommodation standards being poor the care offered at the home is of a good standard and has been rated 'Good' by Care Quality Commission. The cost of making Lower Ridge fit for purpose would involve an entire new build at a cost of over £5m, but the existing footprint of the building does not have the space needed to build a modern older persons' care home. Given the spare capacity that is also available in the other care homes across East Lancashire it is also arguable the costs of a new build care home would not represent the best use of public money. It is thought that the care needs of current residents at Lower Ridge and the necessary quality of service could be met in alternative local care homes. If the closure were to happen colleagues would work closely with the current residents and their families to ensure as smooth a transition as possible and try to ensure any moves take into consideration friendship groups. Where possible staff would be redeployed into other county council care homes and continue to support the residents they currently care for. Therefore, the county council is consulting on a proposal to close Lower Ridge Care Home and we would like to hear your views.
Subject	Older people
Commissioned by	Older People's Service

Geographic area	Burnley
Method	Questionnaire - online Questionnaire - postal
Consultation with	General public Service users
Date	23/04/2018 - 15/07/2018
Undertaken by	Business Intelligence

Project document(s)

Questionnaire(s)