Lincolnshire Council’s plan to upgrade care homes will cost taxpayers £9 million

UPGRADING eight care homes that face closure would cost the taxpayer more than £9 million, it has emerged.

As reported in the Echo earlier this month, the ruling Conservatives at Lincolnshire County Council voted in favour of pushing forward its vision to develop care facilities for older people, which could include closing the homes.

They want to replace respite and day care centres with more modern accommodation to tackle the effects of ageing populations.

This could see eight care homes – including Linelands in Nettleham, Sleaford’s Bonner House, Park View, in Lincoln and The Cedars in Gainsborough – shut and services privatised.

The executive’s decision has now been upheld by the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee after it was called in by the Independent and Labour members.

The basis of the challenge included the unclear meaning of modernised services and whether improvements related to buildings or services and “insufficient attention” given to consultation results.

There could now be a further scrutiny challenge on the grounds of a claimed lack of detail in the business plan for what is proposed.

Councillor Graham Marsh, portfolio holder for adult social care, defending the executive’s position at the scrutiny committee, revealed a modernising upgrade of the eight homes would cost in excess of £9 million.

He said: “It would be lovely to be able to go and build a new home in every area, but the reality is the council does not have that sort of funding.

“I will not accept that, by moving services to the private sector, we would lose quality.

“No services we provide in-house will be stopped until they are replaced by new services of the same or better quality.”

Mr Marsh rejected comments that, without cost details, the executive’s decision in principle was meaningless, saying that, to provide such information, could have preempted the outcome.

The council is still looking at all the options its overriding concern remains quality of care.

Mr Marsh said: “We are all concerned about the quality of care we give and that is paramount.

“But it is about delivering locally because that is what people say they want.”

Labour member John Hough read a statement from a relative of an elderly user of services at The Cedars, which said: “I find the short-term respite care really helpful, in fact, essential for my sanity.

“The quality of staff is very high and they always treat my mother with respect and love.

“It beggars belief that we do not look at how successful we have been and build upon it.”

Leader of the Independents Marianne Overton said: “Closing our homes and launching on a massive building programme at this time will be expensive and surely doomed to failure.

“Better to keep and concentrate on what is working well.”