A small council-run care home that looks after adults with learning difficulties is set to close to save £450,000 from the council’s budget.
But Bristol City Council isn’t planning to sell Concord Lodge, which has the capacity to look after up to seven vulnerable adults with complex needs, because council chiefs say they hope another private provider will come in and run similar services from there instead.
A consultation on the closure - the latest in a string of cuts and closures as Bristol City Council tries to save money by scaling back its health and care expenditure - is due to end tomorrow (Wednesday), and the closure plan looks almost certain to go ahead.
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Council chiefs agreed to review the services provided at Concord Lodge at their budget meeting in February, despite criticism from opposition leaders.
The plan is to close down the residential unit at Concord Lodge, which is in Horfield, and leave it available for another care provider to come in and run care services from there.
At the moment, Concord Lodge has up to seven adults with learning difficulties staying there at any one time, and employs 33 staff. The adults there typically stay for six to nine months for assessment, and the unit has a ‘Good’ rating from the Care Quality Commission.
It’s staffed, owned and run by Bristol City Council, but like the closures of the South Bristol Rehab Centre last year, and the East Bristol Rehab Centre this year, the city council is withdrawing from running many social care services, preferring that the services provided there are taken on or replaced by a private healthcare provider or the NHS.
A spokesperson for Bristol City Council said the council would save £350,000 this financial year, and another £100,000 in the next financial year, with ongoing savings of £450,000 every year after that, if they cut the service. The biggest problem for the council is that it costs a lot of money to pay the staff to work there, and even though the service is much-needed, it isn’t part of the legal requirement of services provided by the council, like bin collections or planning.
“It has become clear that it will not be possible to make the required level of savings while still providing the current service in the way we do now,” a council spokesperson said. “The single biggest cost within the current service budget is staffing, due to the number of staff required during a period of assessment to support individuals with complex needs. Given the present service model, it is not possible to operate the current service with safe and adequate staffing levels and make the required level of savings.
“The council does not have a statutory duty to provide the type of service it currently offers at Concord Lodge. The council already commissions care and support from a range of different providers for most adults with complex needs (including the type of service offered at Concord Lodge) and will continue to do so. This will ensure that anyone who may have used Concord Lodge will still receive the care and support they need,” the spokesperson added.
The council thought about closing down Concord Lodge and selling off the building - it’s part of a complex that also includes a care home next door - but decided against that.
“It is recognised that there are various future potential uses for the site, and there is also ongoing demand for a number of different NHS, healthcare, and social care services,” a council spokesperson said, adding that what future use that might be is part of the consultation.
“We considered stopping the current service and selling the site. There is continued demand for a range of social care services in the city (either adults or children’s services), which could use the Concord Lodge Site if it becomes available. For this reason, the council does not wish to dispose of the site and we do not propose to take this option forward,” the council added.
The consultation ends on Wednesday this week, and a decision will made in the coming weeks. When the budget proposals were first unveiled, closing Concord Lodge and making cuts to adult social care like this was branded ‘cruel’ by Green Party leader Cllr Heather Mack. “This budget may be called financially prudent, but I don’t want to see money in the bank while people are suffering,” she said.
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