Care home site 'will not be sold to highest bidder'

Instead, the site in Neville Crescent could be re-developed as much needed assisted living accommodation for working age adults, heard yesterday's (Wednesday)  meeting of Gargrave Parish Council.

North Yorkshire Council run Neville House, which currently has six residents and 26 members of staff, is set to close in the autumn and it's residents moved to the council's Ashfield care home in Skipton. Members of staff are to be offered 'suitable employment in the area'.

At the same time, the council will seek to engage a development partner to build an 'extra care' facility for 30 people at a site it owns off Eshton Road, Gargrave and which has long been earmarked for that purpose.

The meeting heard that if the care facility was built, it would mean Craven having more 'first rate care for the elderly' than any other district in North Yorkshire.

Mid-Craven councillor, Simon Myers, who sits on North Yorkshire Council's executive, told the meeting that the closure of Neville House, which opened in 1962, had 'been on the cards for a very long time'.

He said that anyone who had read the report to the council executive last month would have seen that the building was 'in danger of failing at any point'.

"It costs £70,000 per year in maintenance and if it was kept open for another three years it would cost £460,000, and that would not guarantee that it would not have to suddenly close because the building had failed," he said.

He said Neville House had been closed to permanent admissions for four years. It was not able to deal with acute residential care or people with dementia, and the council was also moving away from the traditional model of nursing homes to extra care facilities.

"We are moving to what I know is a much better model because I have seen it in action. With the extra care model, people still retain a degree of dignity and are able to live independent lives for longer."

He said it was fortunate that a facility could be built at Eshton Road - although it was subject to procurement.

"When I was urging the council about 14 months ago to bring forward the extra care units on the council owned land behind Eshton Road, it was deemed unfeasible because the model required in excess of 80 units, nobody was developing extra care under 80 units.

"The model has now changed, and they do see the sense in units of around 30, so that has allowed us to go forward to procurement. If that goes ahead, Craven will have the highest provision of first rate care for the elderly in any former district in North Yorkshire."

He added despite what had been said on social media, the council did not want to sell off the Neville House site, and it would not be developed for council housing, as he had wanted.

"They want in due course to develop something which we do lack in Craven which is assisted living for young adults. We have a compete dearth of it in Craven and it is something that we need. So, the council will actually be spending more money."

Cllr Myers added: "My concern was the welfare of residents, and jobs. The residents are basically very happy to move to Ashfield in Skipton and the staff at the existing site will be offered suitable, local employment."

Rachel Bowes, North Yorkshire's assistant director for adult social care, told the meeting there had been meetings with the residents of Neville House and their families and everyone had expressed a preference to move to Ashfield from Neville.

"If there is anybody who is on the cusp, whose needs have changed to such an extent that they might need nursing care in the near future, we will have conversations with people about whether they potentially want to have two moves, or would it better to consider somewhere else with nursing care."

"For our staffing team, it is lovely to hear how they are valued, and we don't want to lose any of those team members, they are an asset to North Yorkshire Council. There are a huge amount of vacancies in social care across the country, and it is the same in North Yorkshire.

"We are confident that everyone will be supported into another role within our care provider services."

Ms Bowes said although all staff had been aware what was happening, consultations could not happen until after the call-in period, and would get underway towards the end of July.

Mike Rudd, North Yorkshire's head of housing, technology and sustainability, said some initial discussions had taken place with extra care partners, such as Housing 21 - which operates the extra care facility in Settle.

There would be a consultation exercise with people in Gargrave later in the summer which would be followed by the council going back to its procurement partners in the autumn. There were some potential barriers, such as the rising costs of construction, but the council was confident there was a need and it had good partners, and by the end of the year, the authority would have a clear idea what it wanted to do at the Eshton Road site, he said.

Moving the Neville Crescent site, the initial idea had been to develop it as an extra care facility, but the site was not big enough, he said.

"We think that site is better suited to supported accommodation for working age people. We will work with our partners and hopefully develop the Neville House site for that working age group. That will take slightly longer, it is a different model, but it is certainly not the intention to sell it off to the highest bidder. "