An 'ambitious' social care strategy to increase supported living in the community for adults could see 12 new schemes with more than 230 beds built in Bury in the next three years. Bury Council has set out its vision for adult social care housing until 2025 with increased provision or two new care facilities for older people with a total of 114 beds to be built in that period.
In addition, the council says that it intends to increase housing provision for those with mental health conditions by 86 beds in that period. A further 39 housing places for adults with learning disabilities or autism will also be sought by 2025.
The authority said it intended to increase some of the capacity by requiring developers of council owned land to incorporate specialist housing into their plans. A report to the council's cabinet asks the executive to approve the work programme at meeting on June 1.
Bury's cabinet member for health, Tamoor Tariq, said: "A significant work programme is underway to ensure the people of Bury with additional needs are supported to live as independently as possible.
"It will provide local homes for those with additional needs now and in the future and increase housing choices for our older generation and adults with specialist needs, enabling an increased number of people to live independently at home."
The report said that the assessment of future needs had been worked on over the past 15 months and to reject the proposals would mean 'demand would remain unmet and the local authority would be unable to achieve its statutory obligations'.
Coun Tariq said that 'there is an opportunity for the council to influence the supply of specialist housing in the borough'. He added: "This can be done by explicitly requiring housing developers to include an element of specialist accommodation as a part of their proposed scheme.
"This approach works best on land which is directly controlled by the local authority. There are potential opportunities in the near term around the former police station site in Bury town centre and the Pyramid Park site.
"Longer term opportunities exist around the Q Park roof site and potentially the Castle site in the town centre. The potential to find further sites suitable for development, in particular in more suburban areas, may depend upon the ability of the council to dispose of sites in our direct ownership which are now surplus to our requirements."
The report said that once housing units were built 'registered housing providers with established track records in delivering specialist accommodation' would be commissioned to provide care for adults.
Coun Tariq said the scale of the project to deliver more than 230 beds was a challenge. He said: "This is ambitious and could see as many as 12 new developments in Bury over the coming three years.
"The required provision presents a significant challenge that will be met with additional resource and capacity via a dedicated team, who will source investment via capital and revenue budgets, and identify land with planning permission to build at pace."
To get the latest email updates from the Manchester Evening News, click here.
