Former care homes set to reopen in housing plan

By kinchley

CLOSED-DOWN care homes are to be brought back into use as part of a package to improve housing and social services for elderly and vulnerable people.

Kniveden Hall in Leek and Lightwood Home, Cheadle, pictured below, were closed in 2008 by Staffordshire County Council as part of the authority's Changing Lives programme.

Now, new-style specialist housing for older people with a range of care needs or those requiring dementia support or respite care will be provided on those sites.

At Kniveden Hall, facilities will be extended to the adjoining Springhill Hostel, a home for people with learning difficulties, which had also been under threat of closure.

The Changing Lives programme involved the closure of 14 authority-run care homes for the elderly and 10 disability care homes across the county and sparked a storm of protests from relatives.

The new joint venture by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and the county council has been welcomed by campaigners who fought to keep homes open in the Moorlands, where 25 per cent of the 90,000-plus population are pensioners.

The new complex at Cheadle is due to open in 2012 and includes 40 apartments, each catering for two people.

Peter Elkin, whose father Fred and mother-in-law Edith Cordon were both cared for at Lightwood, led the campaign against closure.

He said: "We were promised these facilities during the campaign against closure and it looked as though it would never happen.

"I am glad to see something is now being done, although it has come too late for some.

"Residents did not want to leave Lightwood and there were some sad cases where people moved and were not happy in their new homes.

"I do not think you can ever replace the care given at Lightwood, it was something special.

"It was always going to be impossible for people to find somewhere else. It was a very sad episode losing it."

The new complexes will also help meet demand from an increasing number of people suffering from dementia in the Moorlands.

Latest figures show that in 2008, 1,258 people over the age of 65 in the district covering Biddulph, Leek and Cheadle were afflicted by Alzheimer's.

The figure is expected to increase to 1,509 in 2015 and 2,110 by 2025.

So far, 414 extra-care places providing independent living quarters, with care on hand should it be needed, have been provided in the county and there are another 597 in the pipeline.

Community leaders claim those figures are set to soar over the next few years.

Councillor Mike Maryon, county councillor for Cheadle and Checkley, said: "We are accelerating provision across all of Staffordshire.

"By 2013, we plan to have more than trebled the current number to a total of 1,250."

Councillor Matthew Ellis, county council cabinet member for social care and health, said: "This is an exciting opportunity to create something special for people in the Moorlands.

"There are serious inequalities between care and support available in the north and south of Staffordshire that need to be addressed."

Councillor Sybil Ralphs, district council leader, said: "I have worked closely with the county council to safeguard the long-term future of the Kniveden and Springhill sites.

"I am delighted both sites will form an integral part of this package of care."