City care facilities recommended to close permanently

TWO council run care facilities in Bradford will be closed on a permanent basis, a new report has recommended.

Bradford Council had already mothballed Thompson Court in Crossflatts and Norman Lodge in Odsal, and a report going to the authority’s executive on Tuesday says the facilities should be permanently closed.

Along with the closure of Woodward Court in Allerton – which has since been sold – the changes will save more than £4m a year.

At its next meeting the executive will be given an update on a recent review of intermediate care services which was undertaken by Bradford Council and local NHS partners.

Intermediate care is the term used for a range of services that help people to stay at home for longer without having to go into hospital or get people out of hospital sooner and help them to regain their independence.

It said there should be a greater focus on a ‘Home First’ model to help older people stay at home with more responsive services, rather than requiring residential care.

As part of this new focus – the report suggested the mothballed facilities close permanently.

The report says: “The short-stay care facility at Woodward Court in Allerton was mothballed in February 2023 after problems with the fabric of the building.

“The council’s executive agreed to close this facility in April 2023.

“System partners agreed to the mothballing of Thompson Court care facility in Crossflatts from January 2024 due to under-occupancy, to see if the system could cope with a smaller number of beds. This does not appear to have affected performance around the requirement for short-stay beds.

“Due to positive changes made to other care pathways since then to enable ‘Home First’, occupancy at Norman Lodge care facility in Odsal has dropped to around 50 per cent of available beds so partners agreed to the mothballing of that facility to assess system resilience. It closed to new admissions from February 19 and system performance is manageable with few people waiting for onward care packages.

The report adds: “The decision to close Woodward Court and the recommendation to permanently close Thompson Court and Norman Lodge will save approximately £4.1m in 2024-25 from the adult social care budget and will be used to mitigate existing departmental budget pressures.

Iain Macbeath, Bradford’s strategic director, adult social care and health said: “This blueprint for Intermediate Care means we’ll change our offer and provide what people tell us they want – to get home independently wherever possible. As part of the re-modelling, proposals have been made to close Thompson Court and Norman Lodge care homes on a permanent basis.”