Derbyshire Council considers new provider for care home amidst concerns for residents and staff

Derbyshire County Council has confirmed negotiations are underway with an interested party to take over the running of one if its care homes which has been marketed for sale despite campaigners having argued against the facility falling into private ownership amidst concerns for elderly residents and staff.

The Reform UK council’s planned sale of eight of its care homes to a single provider collapsed and left them facing closure but the authority has now confirmed that negotiations with an ‘established care provider’ involving the sale of a ninth facility – Ada Belfield care home, in Belper – are underway.

Cabinet member for Adult Care, Cllr Joss Barnes, said: “I’m pleased to announce that we’re working with a provider on the future operation of Ada Belfield Centre. It’s very early days in the negotiations but we wanted to make sure our residents and their families, along with our valued colleagues, were kept informed of what was happening.

“Their wellbeing is our top priority and I recognise it’s been an uncertain time for them since the decision was made in 2024, and I thank them for their patience.

“We’re cautiously optimistic and as soon as we have more information we’ll let them know, keeping them informed along the way.”

The former Conservative-controlled council originally agreed to sell nine care homes while managing a multi-million pound budget deficit after it argued a need to refocus adult care services by supporting more dementia patients and helping more people to stay at home due to what it claimed was a decline in demand for residential care, and the new Reform UK council administration took up the plans and following the collapsed sale of eight of its care homes in December to a single private provider and their feared closure, the authority has now announced on April 15th that Ada Belfield is currently subject to negotiations with a care provider to take it over.

The council stated that only providers registered with the Care Quality Commission and with experience and expertise in the running of registered residential care or nursing homes to a good or outstanding standard were considered.

It has offered a commercial lease for the whole site, including the care home and library which will be unaffected by any new leasing arrangements and will continue to be run by the council.

Cllr Barnes said the council was working through the details with the company and as the home was due to be transferred as a going concern, there were not expected to be any changes to the day-to-day care for residents.

He added: “We’re confident that the staff who support our residents now – people they know and trust – will move with them to the new provider so that their care and relationships remain consistent.”

Cllr Barnes has previously said and hoped that the current care staff would transfer as part of arrangements and that current residents would not incur additional costs as a result of moving to the new provider.

Belper Together campaigners are opposed to the council’s sale of its care homes including Ada Belfield with concerns about privatisation and worries for the future of residents and staff as well as the home’s library and cafe.

Di Houlden, of Belper Together, fears it will be more expensive for the council to maintain residents in private facilities because without public sector provision at an affordable price she claims private operators will have free rein to raise their fees.

Ms Houlden argued that unlike the council which is statutorily obliged to provide adult social care, the objective of private companies is to make a profit.

She also fears the cost for the council of finding places and funding for the difference in fees between public and private care, and she fears costly council staff redundancies.

The former Conservative council based its original decision to sell the homes on a need to refocus adult care services by supporting more dementia patients and helping more people to stay at home due to what it claimed was a decline in demand for residential care, and the new Reform UK council administration which took control after the May election has echoed a similar strategy.

The UNISON union has opposed the care home sales and feared closures from the very start, led protests, organised public meetings, lobbied Westminster and repeatedly urged the council to rethink plans it says risk uprooting vulnerable residents and breaking up experienced care teams.

Opposition Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Party councillors also previously joined campaigners and concerned residents in a failed bid to stop the former Conservative council agreeing to sell the original eight care homes.

They argued the net savings of the decision were not stipulated in a relevant report and that no account was taken in the report of any possible increase in expenditure resulting from the decision.

Opposition councillors argued the decision will have a detrimental effect on some of the most vulnerable older people and the changes do not take into account an increasingly older population and what they believe is an increasing demand for residential care.

Nine Labour MPs also appealed to the former Conservative council administration in July, 2024, to reconsider its proposals to sell and potentially close the care homes after they claimed this could prove to be ‘devastating’ with ‘serious consequences’.

The council says discussions are ongoing regarding Ada Belfield and that it is likely to be several weeks before specific details can be confirmed.

It added that it has updated colleagues and written to residents to let them know the latest information.

Cllr Barnes thanked residents and their families for their patience, adding: “I’d also like to publicly thank our fantastic care colleagues who have continued to offer exceptional care to our residents throughout. Thank you.”

The other eight care homes the former Conservative council agreed in November 2024 to stop operating and to sell included: Briar Close, at Borrowash; Castle Court, at Swadlincote; The Grange, at Eckington; Lacemaker Court, at Long Eaton; The Leys, at Ashbourne; New Bassett House, at Shirebrook; Rowthorne, at Swanwick; And Thomas Colledge House, at Bolsover.

UNISON now fears the Reform UK-controlled council is determined to close these eight care homes which were subject to a failed sale, despite strong public opposition and warnings from unions, families and campaigners about the impact on vulnerable residents and staff.

The council stated the focus of its in-house care homes is now upon wraparound care for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers including long-term specialist dementia care coupled with respite day and night breaks while working with health partners to increase the number of community support beds to help with timely discharges from hospital.

Cllr Barnes has said the council had marketed the eight care homes on an individual basis and offers were invited for both single, multiple homes or as a whole package and the authority worked intensively to sell them all as going concerns but unfortunately the sale to a single provider could not be progressed.

He also said he has been ‘devastated’ over the failed sale and that each care home resident is being supported with a dedicated case worker, families are being consulted and kept involved in the process, and that staff will also be supported with redeployment and employment processes.

Cllr Barnes has said supporting older and disabled people is one of the council’s highest priorities and it is absolutely committed to maintaining and developing quality residential and home care in Derbyshire.

He added that the council’s Cabinet agreed to transform its in-house care services to focus on providing wraparound care for the growing number of people with dementia and their carers alongside closer working with health partners to increase the number of community support beds to help with timely discharge from hospital.

Cllr Barnes said this move follows a decline in demand for traditional residential care as people choose to stay in their homes for as long as possible and by the time they need to go into care they need more intensive support, such as nursing care, which the council cannot legally provide.

Four MPs have also backed UNISON’s campaign urging Derbyshire County Council to save the other eight care homes from feared closure after their collapsed sale.

The council has been urged by the UNISON union to save these care homes from feared closure with backing from four Derbyshire Labour MPs including NE Derbyshire’s Louise Sandher-Jones, Chesterfield’s Toby Perkins, Mid Derbyshire’s Jonathan Davies and South Derbyshire’s Samantha Niblett.

Union campaigners also descended upon the Houses of Parliament in March to meet the Minister for Social Care Stephen Kinnock with concerns over the feared closure of eight Derbyshire County Council care homes.

Derbyshire UNISON Branch Secretary, Martin Porter, has argued the union firmly believes in non-profit making public service provision of care but its wider concern is that provision will vanish altogether leaving future Derbyshire citizens in an impossible position unless the council can arrange a sale for the remaining care homes.

The union says the planned closure of eight care homes for older people will leave just a handful of care homes run by the council across the whole of the county and it pleaded with Mr Kinnock to do everything possible to prevent what they called a ‘dire scenario’.

UNISON says it would prefer the homes to stay in public ownership but would accept a transfer to a private care owner if it could save a home and UNISON added that it knows of at least one potential buyer for The Grange, on Southgate, at Eckington.