Options considered for the future of Allison House

This section provides information about the options currently being considered in relation to the future of Allison House residential care home. It aims to support people who wish to participate in the consultation process about the future of the care home and should help people make an informed response to the consultation questionnaire.

Summary

A number of options in relation to the future of Allison House have been considered and evaluated against four important criteria. These are:

• improved quality of accommodation – would the option mean that the current or future people living at Allison House will be living in homes that have good quality care and meet modern standards of facilities and accommodation?
• minimal disruption – what degree of disruption to the lives of current people living at Allison House would result from the option in question and what will the impact of this be on their health and wellbeing?
• value for money – would the option represent good value for money – both in the short and longer term?
• market response – would the option mean that more care home places are available at affordable rates?

When considering the future of Allison House, we have considered and evaluated a number of options. These options are listed below (click on each option to read more) and the outcome of our consideration to date is set out in full further on:

1. do nothing – continue to run Allison House in its present form
2. the Council builds a new care home on the Sandye Place site and then closes Allison House
3. the independent sector builds a new care home and the Council then closes Allison House
4. selling Allison House to another organisation to run as a going concern
5. building a new home on the Allison House site – moving people to alternative homes, demolishing the old home and building a new one
6. running the home down – stopping new admissions to the home but keeping it open for an agreed period of time
7. refurbishing the existing home so that it meets modern standards

Nationally and locally, people are living longer. Quite rightly the expectations of older people and their relatives have got higher, and as a council, our ambitions for the care and support of older people have also increased.

We want the best possible quality of life for its residents and have been looking at how it can secure this both now and for future generations.

In this context, we have been reviewing our own residential care homes, and Allison House is the last of the original council care homes requiring reprovision.

We have been investigating options and opportunities in the Sandy area and own the former Sandye Place Academy site which would be suitable for a new care home.

We are therefore consulting on the future of Allison House. Having reviewed a number of options for the future of the home, our preferred option at this stage is to develop a new care home at the former Sandye Place Academy site and arrange accommodation of a better physical standard in alternative care homes, including this new home, for people living at Allison House. We would then close Allison House.

If agreed, this option would take a minimum of two years to implement, during which time it is intended that Allison House would remain open.

Having considered the options for the future of Allison House, our preferred option at this stage is to deliver a new home at the former Sandye Place Academy site and support people living at Allison House to move to alternative homes. We would then close Allison House.

This is the preferred option at this stage because:

• improved quality of accommodation: it enables people who have resided at Allison House to live in care homes that meet increasing expectations with respect to physical and environmental standards and deliver good quality care
• minimal disruption for existing residents: any move would mean some disruption for people living at Allison House, which could have a negative impact on their health and wellbeing. Whilst the preferred option would require existing residents to move, this would only happen once, and measures would be put in place to mitigate any risks to their health and wellbeing
• value for money: the balance of cost, quality and outcomes for example, ensuring that people we support that are funded by us are given equal opportunity to access the high standards of a modern care home. We consider the preferred option fulfils the requirements of value for money in the medium to longer-term
• market response: the independent sector has increasingly been less able to offer places in modern care homes at rates affordable to us, putting at risk our ability to fulfil statutory obligations. Developing Care is Central as a wholly owned company of the Council helps mitigate this risk, enabling us to access sufficient places at affordable rates whilst Care is Central is also able to compete equitably in the local care home market for self-funders

Although this is the preferred option currently, we want to hear your views before coming to a decision. This is why the consultation process is so important.