Union campaigners meet with care minister in bid to save eight Derbyshire council care homes from closure

Unison campaigners meet With Care Minister Stephen Kinnock and North East Derbyshire MP Louise Sandher Jones at The Houses Of Parliament over concerns for Adult Social Care in Derbyshire. (Credit: Unison)

By Jon Cooper – Local Democracy Reporting Service

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

Derbyshire County Council, during its time under a Conservative administration, chose to sell the eight care homes to help address a multi-million pound budget deficit and rising costs in adult social care before the current Reform UK council adopted a similar strategy until the planned sale of the homes to one single provider collapsed leaving them in danger of closure.

But defiant UNISON union members and fellow campaigners have been continuing to call upon the council to save the care homes with a number of protests as well as highlighting a potential buyer for one of the affected homes, The Grange, in Eckington.

Derbyshire UNISON Branch Secretary, Martin Porter, said: “We firmly believe in non-profit making public service provision of care.

“But, our concern now is that this provision will vanish altogether leaving future Derbyshire citizens in an impossible position, unless the council can arrange a sale to a private provider.”

UNISON’s latest bid to raise concerns about care provision in the county culminated in a meeting with the Minister for Social Care, Stephen Kinnock, at the Houses of Parliament, on March 11th.

The union says the planned closure of eight care homes for older people will leave just four 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’.

Dave Ratchford, UNISON Regional Officer, fears these changes could lead to a very uncertain future.

Mr Ratchford said: “Putting the provision of residential care into the hands of the private market would be a disaster for both service users and their families as well as the taxpayer.

“Not only will people be forced to live far apart from their families but the huge cost increases in private children’s care tells us a privately run adult care market is unsustainable.”

The eight affected 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.

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.

Union staff and worried family members have urged Mr Kinnock to do all he can to prevent vulnerable residents from being uprooted and to prevent experienced care teams being broken up under the council’s latest plans.

Four concerned Derbyshire Labour MPs have also backed UNISON’s campaign which has already involved a ‘silent vigil’ demonstration outside The Grange  and a protest outside the council’s County Hall, in Matlock, with campaigners including Chesterfield and District Trade Union representatives.

MPs including NE Derbyshire’s 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 distressed relatives of residents based at the eight care homes.

Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Party councillors have also previously joined campaigners and concerned residents in a bid to save the eight care homes.

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.

Despite the new Reform UK council administration taking control after the May election it echoed a similar strategy but the council confirmed in December that the planned sale of all the homes to one provider had collapsed.

UNISON fears the Reform UK-controlled council is determined to close the eight 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 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.

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.

Cllr Joss Barnes, Cabinet Member for Adult Care, has said the council had marketed the 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.

The council has stated it intends to continue with a separate plan to sell a ninth individual care home –  Ada Belfield, in Belper – to a new provider after they appointed property agents Ernest Wilson to offer the commercial lease on this facility despite the council’s reluctance to do something similar with The Grange.

In a recent statement, Cllr Barnes said: “Supporting older and disabled people is one of our highest priorities and we are absolutely committed to maintaining and developing quality residential and home care in Derbyshire.”

“We have a legal duty to ensure the sector is sustainable and effective and we work closely with providers in the private, voluntary and independent sector to ensure it is.”

He added: “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.

“The decision follows a decline in demand for traditional residential care as people choose to stay in their homes for as long as possible. By the time they need to go into care they need more intensive support, such as nursing care, which we can’t legally provide.

“These changes are helping us create a sustainable care service for the future, able to help those who need us most.

“The health and wellbeing of our care home residents, their families, friends and our valued colleagues remains our top priority and we continue to do everything we can to support them to find suitable new homes.

“We are currently assessing offers we’ve received to lease Ada Belfield as a going concern which we’ll be considering in the coming weeks.

“The lease would cover the whole site, with the leaseholder required to sub-let the library back to the county council at no cost.

“It is hoped that current care staff would transfer as part of those arrangements and that current residents will not incur additional costs as a result of moving to the new provider.”