Council care home marked for closure
Walnut Close is running at a loss – staff could be ‘better deployed’
A THATCHAM care home has been recommended for closure.
Residents in Walnut Close will be moved to other council homes and staff reallocated to fill vacancies under the recommendation.
The council’s executive committee will vote tonight (Thursday) on whether to close the home.
A decision on whether to keep the building or sell it off is yet to be made.
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 council said that Covid-19 had had “a devastating effect on the whole care home sector in the area”, but it had presented an opportunity to consolidate its efforts on other homes to provide adequate staffing and quality care.
The council operates Birchwood, Willows Edge and No Trees alongside Walnut Close and resident numbers have fallen during the pandemic.
Walnut Close is more than 50 years old and will require £150,000 worth of building work this year alone to stay open.
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.
A decision on the future of Walnut Close following its closure would be made by the council’s executive meeting 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 if the proposal is approved, as this would need to be flexible to accommodate the residents and in the context of Covid-19.
Walnut Close is more than 50 years old and will require £150,000 worth of building work