Care home closure approved
Walnut Close residents and staff to move to ‘modern and enhanced facilities’ at Birchwood
THATCHAM’S Walnut Close care home is to close and its residents and staff will be moved elsewhere.
West Berkshire Council said that the home, off the A4, is more than 50 years old and will require £150,000 worth of building work this year alone to stay open.
The decision was also influenced by the “devastating effect” of the coronavirus pandemic, which the council said had also presented an opportunity to consolidate its efforts on other homes to provide adequate staffing and quality care.
The council is proposing to move residents and staff to its Birchwood care home in Turnpike.
West Berkshire Council’s executive committee made the decision at a meeting on Thursday.
Shadow portfolio holder for adult social care Alan Macro (Lib Dem, Theale) had asked for the council to do everything it could to maintain relationships that residents had built with each other and staff.
He also asked for the council to put things off until the pandemic had subsided.
He said after the meeting: “With the pandemic ongoing we need to be careful either moving people who are Covid-19 positive into a new home or moving people into a home where there is a positive case.”
Executive member for adult social care Graham Bridgman (Con, Burghfield and Mortimer) said after the decision that there were sufficient spaces at Birchwood, which would offer modern and enhanced facilities.
“Birchwood is under two miles from Walnut so there shouldn’t be any
issues for families in visiting,” he said.
“All of the care staff from Walnut Close are being offered like roles at Birchwood, so that there will be a continuity of friendly faces when residents arrive in their new surroundings – we don’t anticipate that there will be any need for redundancies.
“Moreover, the intention is that a currently empty wing at Birchwood will be re-named Walnut, and staffed by current Walnut Close staff, so there should be a little home-from-home for the Walnut Close residents moving in.
“We recognise that the idea of moving to another care home might be unsettling for some residents and their families, but all possible care
will be taken, including rigorous risk assessments and Covid testing – we are not going to rush this and everything will be done to ensure that the residents have a successful move and enjoy their new surroundings.”
Walnut Close currently houses 17 residents, but can accommodate 35 and is running at a loss.
Costly improvements are also needed to better manage possible infection outbreaks and to improve the home’s ‘ Requires Improvement’ Care Quality Commission rating.
The home is not dementia-friendly and the council said its closure would help fund dementia-friendly improvements for Birchwood.
The council said that Walnut Close had 25 full-time staff out of a budgeted 34 and across the council’s other three homes there are around 40 full-time vacancies.
It said that redeploying staff from Walnut Close to fill vacant posts would save around £350,000 a year.
Furthermore, consistency and continuity of staff would be achieved in order to prevent transmitting Covid-19 by using agency workers.
An additional saving of around £330,000 would also be made through bed places.
A consultation on closing the home received 35 responses, of which 19 ‘disagreed’ or ‘strongly disagreed’ (54 per cent) with closing the home.
Ten ‘agreed’ or ‘strongly agreed’ (29 per cent) and the remaining six (17 per cent) were neutral.
Mr Bridgman quoted the service manager for the council’s Responsive Care Providers team, Sara Ross, as saying: “All these discussions have been very positive and the residents spoken to were all very excited and particularly happy that they would be moved to Birchwood where they will have their own bathrooms.”
A decision on the future of Walnut Close following its closure would be made by the council’s executive at a later date.
“Serious suggestions” include the sale of the land and structure, redeveloping the building to provide accommodation for rough sleepers, or council office space.
The council said there was no fixed timescale for closing Walnut Close as this would need to be flexible to accommodate the residents and in the context of Covid-19.