Four care homes closed in Haringey

Up to 89 elderly and disabled people have been affected by the decision to close four care homes in north London.

Haringey Council plans to shut three homes for the elderly and a residential and respite home for adults with learning disabilities.

Broadwater Lodge, Cranwood, The Red House centre and the respite care home in Whitehall Street will shut by 2013.

The council said it was “forced” to close the care homes to achieve its £41m savings target by March 2012.

The council said the decision to close the homes by March 2013 was geared towards providing “less in-house services” and becoming a “commissioning organisation”.

The local authority owns a total of seven care homes, of which four are to be closed.

In February, the Labour-run council approved £84m cuts from a total budget of £273m over the next three years.
‘Unprecedented cuts’

Dilek Dogus, cabinet member for health and adult services, said: “We very much regret that we have been forced to take these decisions as a result of unprecedented government imposed cuts – which mean we have to make £41m in savings across the council during the present financial year.

“We carried out extensive consultations with service users and their families before arriving at the decisions taken by cabinet – and would like to give an assurance that we are working hard with other providers, notably in the voluntary and independent sectors, to ensure that vulnerable adults continue to receive the care they require.”

The council said it could use nine independent residential care homes in the borough, which accommodate 231 people. In addition it would look at other facilities in neighbouring boroughs.

Haringey said it currently commissions about 75% of all elderly residential care to the private sector.

For people with learning disabilities, there are 28 care homes with 139 beds in addition to council-owned Linden House which has six beds.

About 90% of the care is commissioned to the independent sector.