North Derbyshire councillor joins vigil as eight Derbyshire council care homes face closure

North East Derbyshire District Cllr Kathy Clegg, Courtesy Of Cllr Clegg.

By Jon Cooper – Local Democracy Reporting Service

A North East Derbyshire District Councillor has described the circumstances for one of eight Derbyshire County Council care homes facing closure as ‘devastating’ for residents, their families and staff.

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 with backing from four concerned Derbyshire Labour MPs as well as North East Derbyshire District Cllr Kathy Clegg who joined a UNISON-organised silent vigil on February 6th outside The Grange care home, on Southgate, in Eckington which is among the affected eight homes.

Cllr Clegg, Labour District Councillor for Eckington South and Renishaw, said: “The Grange is a much loved, precious part of our community and its closure is devastating to the residents, their families, the workers and those others both directly and indirectly associated with it.

“Many people will have had in their minds the idea that if they ever need to go into care, The Grange might hopefully be their last home.”

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.

Cllr Clegg added: “The Grange, of some 80 years’ existence, initially opened to elderly ladies who were mostly widowed after the World Wars and who found themselves in need of a supported ‘home from home’ as they reached their older age, subsequently a care, recovery, and respite home for hundreds of others over the decade is being closed, not sold, closed, shut down by the county council.”

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.

The union’s East Midlands Regional Officer, Dave Ratchford, said UNISON East Midlands has argued that the private sector remains questionable and he claims the costs of private care are too unstable and have already led to enormous problems for the council in children’s care.

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 sell and 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 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.

County Cllr Joss Barnes, Cabinet Member for Adult Care, has stressed 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.

He added that he was ‘devastated’ that despite the hard work by the council and the relevant company, negotiations for the sale of the eight care homes had failed.

Cllr Barnes said that work will be undertaken to support residents 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 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.

Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins said: “I am confused by the county council’s insistence that just because a deal fell through to sell all eight homes to one provider, they are not willing to consider individual home sales, which might allow some of these residents to remain where they are.

“I am told that there are interested buyers in at least a couple of the homes. We need urgent clarity on this.

“I am also concerned that in closing these care homes, it will only cost the county council far more in the long term by having to pay private providers, a lesson they have been slow to learn on accommodation for children in care, which has cost hundreds of thousands if not millions.”

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

She 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 added: “I hope it is not yet too late for Derbyshire County Council to come up with a better conclusion to this heartbreaking and hugely damaging closure.”

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

He 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.”

A UNISON-backed demonstration has been organised for the public to attend at the council’s County Hall, in Matlock, from 1pm, on February 11th, with campaigners opposed to the feared closures.

UNISON Derbyshire branch secretary Martin Porter said: “People are angry, but they’re also desperate for common sense to prevail. If there’s a way to keep homes like The Grange open, that must be better than shutting the doors and forcing residents to move.”

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 are opposed to the sale of Ada Belfield 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.

South Derbyshire MP Samantha Niblett said: “I was deeply saddened to learn that the final resident has now been moved out of Castle Court, the affected care home in my constituency.

“For residents, this was not simply a service but their home; for families, a place of trust; and for staff, a vocation built on care, dignity and commitment.

“It’s closure, along with all of the homes listed, will be felt not only by those directly affected, but across the wider Derbyshire community.

“I stand with UNISON, residents, families and staff in calling on Derbyshire County Council to pause and rethink these decisions, and to properly explore alternatives that avoid unnecessary disruption and put people’s wellbeing first.”