New nursing home sites sought by council to help meet future demand for care

The authority is also looking to develop facilities in Burntwood and Tamworth into nursing homes, subject to business cases, after cabinet members backed plans.

A former school site in North Staffordshire has already been suggested as a potential care facility, cabinet member Simon Tagg said. But the county council has sold the former Seabridge Centre to a housing developer and it is now earmarked for 55 new homes, despite the proposals being rejected by Newcastle Borough Council.

Councillor Tagg, speaking at Wednesday’s county council cabinet meeting, said: “I note the fact that the district with one of the lowest (numbers of beds) is Newcastle. And I note that we are looking for and requesting potential sites for nursing homes be identified.

“Does the cabinet member think the property team at the council are on message with this? I could name a site within Newcastle which is going to have an inappropriate overdevelopment plonked right in the middle of an estate, which is the Seabridge Centre site.

“I’ve been for many years putting forward the case that it should be used for care – is that option still available for that site? I know a cabinet decision has been made, I was against that and there could be a better use.

“You put forward the vision of using council-owned sites to be able to increase the care beds necessary. People in Newcastle and their families will want to remain in the borough while they’re in care.”

A report to Wednesday’s cabinet meeting revealed that Newcastle had the second lowest number of nursing beds per 100,000 over 65s, at 1,789. Tamworth had the lowest overall, with 849 nursing beds per 100,000 over 65s.

As of October 2022, there were 4,351 nursing beds and 76 nursing homes across the county. The report said: “Over the last few years there has been a reduction in nursing home capacity in Staffordshire and four nursing homes have closed since April 2022.”

Councillor Julia Jessel, cabinet member for health and care, told the meeting: “There are areas such as Tamworth and Newcastle, followed closely by Stafford and Staffordshire Moorlands, where provision looking to the future will fall short of what is required. Now we have detailed information on which we can build plans for the future.

“Nursing home capacity is needed and there are challenges within the market, particularly with securing and retaining qualified nursing staff. There are specific challenges, particularly for the smaller homes, who are finding it more and more difficult to retain staff and financial viability

“Within the county there are 76 nursing homes and a certain number of those we are continuing to support to ensure the quality of care they provide is maintained. There are new nursing homes being built but the cost of the placements is about double what this authority can provide – and if no new nursing homes are provided we will need a greater proportion of that that’s available, and at those prices it is unaffordable.

“As a consequence it’s been identified that there is an opportunity at Bracken House in Burntwood and Meadowyrthe in Tamworth to develop those for residential care home and nursing home provision. In terms of new nursing homes I think we would need to consider all options as to how those can be delivered.

“I’m not necessarily in favour of the local authority building them; they are extremely expensive services to construct. But I think in partnership with other operators and providers there are those opportunities and there may well be sites or buildings that we already own where we can operate in a partnership approach.”

The report also revealed that the number of nursing homes in Staffordshire rated as good or outstanding by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was 66 per cent – below the England average of 76 per cent. Just 44 per cent had a good or outstanding rating in Cannock Chase, with Lichfield having the highest percentage of any district in the county at 70 per cent.

Councillor Jessel said: “It is within our four-year strategy to improve the overall CQC rating of nursing homes in Staffordshire. We are below the national average.

“We are not in total control because they are often run by other organisations. But I do not think that’s good enough for the people of Staffordshire and we’re working hard with those homes to encourage them and help facilitate improvements in the quality of care they provide.”