Protesters gather at County Council HQ in opposition to feared closure of eight care homes

Protesters At Derbyshire County Council'S County Hall Opposed To The Authority'S Feared Closure Plans For Eight Care Homes.

By Jon Cooper – Local Democracy Reporting Service

Protesters turned out in a last ditch bid to persuade Derbyshire County Council in the eleventh hour to save eight of its elderly care homes from feared closure after the authority’s failed attempt to sell them to a single provider.

The former Conservative-controlled council chose to sell the eight care homes while managing a multi-million pound budget deficit and after the new Reform UK council administration took control following the May election it adopted a similar strategy until the planned sale to a single provider collapsed leaving the homes in danger of closure.

Derbyshire County Council is being urged by the UNISON union to save the care homes from feared closure as they gathered with fellow campaigners including Chesterfield and District Trade Union representatives outside the council’s County Hall, in Matlock, on February 11th, just before a full council meeting.

UNISON East Midlands spokesperson Chris Birks said: “There are eight council-run homes that have been slowly run down to reduce capacity to make it easier for the council to close. The one that stands out is The Grange [in Eckington] that has a buyer down the road and he wants to buy it and he has been told he cannot because they wanted to sell the other seven [together] as one sale.”

Mr Birks added that UNISON wants to keep any care home in the public sector but where this has not happened if there is an opportunity for any of the care homes to go to a private provider they should do so because this would be better than moving people from their homes.

He claimed that he is aware of one resident who has been moved in the last month who has died within the week even though he stressed this may well not have been caused by the council’s plans but he has argued that moving residents does cause distress.

James Eaden, President of Chesterfield and District TUC, said he felt the feared closure of care homes is a ‘disgrace’ and he added: “The impact it has particularly on the residents and the families and their carers and the wider community is incalculable.

“There is very well established research that shows the health outcomes for residents of elderly care homes who then have to move because of closure or reorganisation in their care provision are uniformly negative. To put it crudely, closing care homes kills elderly people.”

NE Derbyshire District Cllr Kathy Clegg recently said: “A frail and elderly resident of The Grange was moved to his new home yesterday (February 2) and the equipment required to enable his safe movement and care – namely a rotunda had not been delivered.

“Already we are seeing the adverse effects of this callous and rushed decision by a council who appear to have little regard or respect for their most vulnerable constituents.”

Cllr Clegg argued that local authority care provision is ‘almost always the most desirable’ option and a sale as an ongoing concern would still serve families and friends better than an ‘eviction notice’ and she questioned what the council’s plans are for the buildings.

South Derbyshire MP Samantha Niblett said she has been deeply saddened to learn that the final resident has now been moved out of Castle Court, at Swadlincote, which is an affected care home in her constituency.

Derbyshire UNISON branch secretary Martin Porter said: “We were told the eight care homes were not going to close and they weren’t going to close and it turned out that was not true. We do not know the details but we are aware that a private provider was trying to buy them.”

Four concerned Derbyshire Labour MPs as well as NE Derbyshire District Cllr Kathy Clegg have backed UNISION’s campaign which also involved a ‘silent vigil’ demonstration on February 6th outside The Grange care home in Eckington which is among the affected eight homes.

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

MPs including Louise Sandher-Jones, Chesterfield’s Toby Perkins, Mid-Derbyshire’s Jonathan Davies, and South Derbyshire’s Samantha Niblett have met with care home staff and concerned relatives of residents who UNISON claims are facing distress and uncertainty from the feared closures.

UNISON claims the Reform UK-controlled council now wants to close eight of its care homes after their failed sale, despite strong public opposition and warnings from unions, families and campaigners about the impact on vulnerable residents and staff.

The former Conservative council administration 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.

Despite the new Reform UK council administration taking control after the May election it echoed a similar strategy but the council confirmed on December 15 that the planned sale had collapsed and UNISON claims the authority aims to shut the homes after its failed attempt to sell them to a single private provider.

UNISON has long opposed the planned sale and closures, led demonstrations and protests, organised public meetings 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 have also previously joined campaigners and concerned residents in a failed bid to stop the former Conservative council agreeing to sell the eight care homes.

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

The new Reform UK-controlled council stated the focus of the council’s in-house care homes is now upon wraparound care 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.

It had agreed in principle for a single care home provider to take over the running of all eight residential homes as part of a wide-reaching plan by the authority to remodel its in-house care services before the sale collapsed.

County Cllr Joss Barnes, Cabinet Member for Adult Care, has 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 staff will be supported with redeployment and employment processes.

Cllr Barnes said that residents will be supported to find new homes and the council will continue to do everything to support residents, families, friends and council colleagues through this difficult time.

He has also said that any suggestion that residents are being abandoned or placed at risk is inaccurate and risks unnecessarily alarming families and the wider community.

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

However, UNISON has claimed to have discovered that there has been interest from a buyer ready to keep The Grange care home in Eckington open but the union claims the council feels it would now take too long to repeat the process at this late stage given concerns over occupancy levels and the state of buildings.

Cllr Barnes, who was absent from February 11th’s protest and full council meeting due to an unavoidable public duty, has previously said: “I understand how upsetting the news of the closures has been for families and I’d like to say again how sorry I am to all our residents, families and care colleagues. This is not the outcome we’d hoped and worked hard for.

“We marketed the care homes on an individual basis and offers were invited for both single, multiple homes or as a whole package. We worked intensively to sell them as going concerns but unfortunately the sale couldn’t be progressed.

“The health and wellbeing of our residents, their families and friends, and our valued colleagues, is our top priority and we are doing everything we can to support them.

“It’s vital we have an in-house care service fit for the future and our transformation will help us support the whole of Derbyshire.

“As well as a decline in demand for traditional residential care, there’s been an increase in the need for specialist dementia care – including specialist dementia residential care with integrated day services and respite care to help support carers who look after loved ones at home.

“By refocusing our in-house care services, including our home care team and increasing the number of community support beds to support hospital discharge, we can help support more Derbyshire residents to live independently at home, which is what they tell us they want.

“Our own care homes are part of a much bigger residential care market within the Private, Voluntary and Independent sector, who we work closely with as system partners to maintain a buoyant care market in Derbyshire. There is no statutory duty for us to run our own homes.

“We continue to work closely with all those affected to ensure they find suitable new homes and their individual needs are cared for, including following up to ensure they are settled in.”

UNISON Derbyshire branch secretary Martin Porter has said people are angry, but they are also desperate for common sense to prevail.

The council’s new Reform UK administration has stated it intends to continue with the former Conservative-controlled county council’s plans to sell a ninth care home – Ada Belfield, in Belper – to a new provider after they appointed property agents Ernest Wilson to offer the commercial lease on the facility.

Campaigners who have opposed the sale of Ada Belfield in a long-running campaign have also raised concerns that privatisation gives care companies the freedom to raise fees to any level they choose and the campaigners claim that nearly 90 per cent of private care home residents nationally require council supplements to pay for their accommodation.

Opposition Green Party Derbyshire County Cllr Gez Kinsella told the February 11 Full Council meeting: “We have seen the botched sale of eight care homes. We expected them to be sold off to the private sector and it has resulted in eight care homes having to be closed.”