1,000 People Consulted Over Stoke-on-Trent Care Home Shake-Up

More than 1,000 residents and hundreds of staff are being consulted over a multi-million pound shake-up of day centres in Stoke-on-Trent.

Forty more staff are to be appointed and two centres of excellence and a 99-bed care home could be opened over the next year.

All 1,084 adults with disabilities will have their care reassessed and the 250 existing care workers will be retrained to cover more specialisms.

The new approach will focus on adults with conditions such as dementia, depression and other mental health needs, as well as those with physical disabilities.

Some users will be offered training and support to start work or take up voluntary roles and be tutored in life skills to let them live more independently at home.

City council officials today stressed none of its care centres will shut under the proposals.

But the Staffordshire County Council-run site at Maryhill is likely to close.

Under the plans, Tunstall Day Centre will move to Burslem Day Centre, while staff at Maryhill Day Care Centre, in Kidsgrove, will work at day centres across the city.

A specialist Independence Resource Centre will be built in Shelton and existing day centres will be expanded into healthy living centres or centres of excellence.

Steve Wilds, city council interim director of adult social care and health, said: “Our vision is of a city where later life is as active and fulfilling as the earlier years, with older people and younger adults with disabilities or mental health support needs participating in their families and communities.

“In the past these people have often been treated as dependent and a drain on society.

“But many contribute a huge amount as parents, grandparents, carers, volunteers and in other ways.”

The city’s day centres currently cater for 1,084 adults at a cost of £6.35 million. The average cost per user per week is £112.69.

The new strategy will cost at least as much, and should cater for far more users and offer more specialised and accessible services to meet their needs.

Experts predict that by 2025 Stoke-on-Trent will have to support an estimated 2,750 older people with dementia and up to 4,850 with some form of depression by helping them live independently in communities.

Donna Stanway, attends Shelton Day Centre. The 30-year-old, who has learning difficulties and lives in Eaton Park, welcomed the investment and said day centres helped people live fulfilling lives.

She said: “Attending Shelton Day Care Centre has really helped me.

“I have many skills and it has given me a lot of independence.

“I do not feel I am a burden to anyone. I have a lot of friends and the staff are very friendly.”