Council’s ‘Green Light’ For Multi-Million Pound Elderly Care Facilities

Highland Council have given the go-ahead for a new multi-million pound care home in Grantown – ending nearly 18 months of uncertainty for elderly residents of the town’s Grant House and their families.

Members of the full council meeting in Inverness agreed to build and run the new care facility in the Strathspey capital which will be constructed some time between 2008/09 and 2012/13.

Grant House had been one of six council-owned residential care homes in the region controversially proposed to be transferred to the private sector by the previous council administration. Thursday’s decision has been greeted with delighted by members of the Grant House Action Group who had fought against the plans.

Leaders of the Independent-SNP administration insisted that they were not performing a U-turn. They said that with 41 new faces on the 80-strong body, the new administration was taking heed of the public opposition that has dogged the proposals since they were first announced.

The capital costing of building the five new care homes in Grantown, Inverness, Fort William, Muir of Ord and Tain will be £21.5 million. As part of greater investment in services for the region’s elderly, councillors agreed to create 600 more sheltered housing units in the region by the end of 2011. There will also be an additional £1 million for home care provision in each of the next four years – a budget increase of 50%.

No location, specifications or cost for the new care facility in Grantown has yet been given. Highland Council chiefs are due to tour Grant House and then meet with campaigners to get the ball rolling.

Mrs Elizabeth Main, chairwoman of the campaign group, said: “We are all delighted by the council’s decision. We have finally been listened to.” She believes that the previous council’s plans to transfer Grant House to a private sector firm has created a lot of heartache for residents and their families. “Unless you’re directly involved with an issue like this you do not really know what the truth is and what is likely to happen. This could only have caused anxiety for many.”

Mrs Main, who has had loved ones cared for at Grant House, said the group now intended to work closely with Highland Council. “If all this money is being spent then we must ensure that the end result will be satisfactory to current Grant House residents and those who may end up there one day,” she added.

Commenting on opposition to privatisation, she said: “The private sector on the whole provides a good quality of care but there can be blips. Highland Council is ultimately more accountable to the public for the quality of care that it delivers at its care homes.”

Fellow Grantown action group campaigner, Geoff Smith, said: “This is a first-class move and we look forward to Highland Council visiting us and hearing what the community needs.” He added that there was no doubt a new build was the right way forward rather than refurbishment of Grant House.

Mr Smith said that credit should be given to the new council for stopping the procurement process. “They have saved themselves,” he said.

Ms Jaci Douglas, Badenoch and Strathspey Highland councillor (Independent), welcomed the council’s commitment to consult with staff, residents, their families and the wider public. Everyone is really pleased that we will be getting this brand new facility but it’s not just the building of the care but the provision of wider home care facilities which is desperately needed,” she said. Ms Douglas hopes that a start can now be made as soon as possible. “I think that councillors are keen to move on and deliver these new care homes.”

The new care homes are need because the current premises that had been in line for transfer will shortly not meet fire regulations, disability legislation and Care Commission standards. To support its stance, the previous council had also claimed it was nearly £10,000 per year cheaper to provide care for a resident in the private sector than in a council home.

Highland Council will use its borrowing powers to fund the new care home building project paying loans charges of £1.5 million per year for 30 years when the homes are built. There will be an additional staffing cost of up to £700,000 per year to deliver nursing care.

Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber MSP, Fergus Ewing, described the care home decision as “a breath of fresh air”. He continued: “It has taken a new broom – new administration – to take the decision to scrap the process, and instead build new homes.” However, he remains concerned that plans have not progressed for the Wade Centre in Kingussie – which was originally included in the transfer plans but dropped after a well-organised campaign in Badenoch.

Mr Ewing said: “I have been informed that the director for social work, Harriett Dempster, is still referring to the decision as one to build sheltered housing. That is not what was agreed. What was agreed was to build ‘extra care’ housing – which means much higher levels of care and support. I am pursuing this with the council.”

Health campaigner, Helen Cook, who lives in Kingussie, concurred. “We are absolutely delighted that the council has stopped the process of privatising care for older people. We look forward to consultation with them on the future of the Wade Centre,” But she said extra care housing was badly needed in Badenoch. “This is housing with care, which enables people to live in their own homes, in their own community for the rest of their lives – unless they need hospital care – whereas sheltered housing only has part-time warden cover.”

During Thursday’s meeting, Lib Dem councillor David Alston pointed out that 90% of the population would never end up in a council care home. It was vitally important to focus more money in home care services, he said – a point that the Social Work Inspection Agency also raised in their latest report on the council’s service. The authority currently spends £8 million per year on home care. It also emerged that three of the companies – unnamed – had withdrawn from the bidding process before the plug was pulled on Thursday.

Council chief executive, Arthur McCourt, said that the authority had spent £157,000 on the transfer process but legal advice was that the authority would not be liable for any more. Campaigners said that the true figure from Freedom of Information responses supplied by the council itself is £231,326.

The number of very frail older people aged over 75 in the Highlands is projected to increase by 80% by 2024.