Council leaders have promised to treat care staff facing the axe more “compassionately” than colleagues at another rehab centre that they closed controversially a year ago. Bristol City Council chiefs say they have learned lessons after coming under fire from unions and opposition councillors throughout 2021 for how they dealt with employees at South Bristol Rehab Centre before it shut last summer.
The promise came as City Hall cabinet members approved the closure of East Bristol Intermediate Care Centre at a meeting on Tuesday, May 2. Last year, South Bristol Rehab Centre staff were first told that they would transfer to community healthcare provider Sirona at South Bristol Community Hospital on the same pay, terms and conditions.
But the deal fell through and trade union GMB complained the workers were treated “absolutely appallingly”, kept in the dark for months and not asked for their views, with the majority going off sick with “high levels of stress, anxiety and depression”.
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Human resources bosses apologised and told HR committee councillors in February they had learned from mistakes when the 33 employees lost their jobs, of which only nine were redeployed to other council roles, and insisted similar situations would be handled better in future.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, cabinet member for adult social care and integrated care system Cllr Helen Holland said: “The cohort of workers at East Bristol is very different to what it was in South Bristol and it’s also different because of how we’ve approached it. The HR committee asked for a ‘lessons learned’ report after the closure of South Bristol, because there were some significant workforce issues raised.
“As part of the lessons learned, one of the things was we would certainly brief ward members better than we’d done in the South Bristol situation. We’ve had all of the St George ward members in to talk to them about this, but also to have a much better and hopefully compassionate relationship with people whose jobs are going to change.
“I’m pleased to report that for the majority of people who’ve had that conversation with their managers, there are going to be redeployment opportunities for them within Bristol. Redfield Lodge, our care home that’s run by the city council, is within a reasonable distance for people who work at East Bristol Intermediate Care Centre, and hopefully many of them will be redeployed there.”
She said very few councils still provided rehab services when adult social care budgets faced huge pressures, and that health partners were better placed to do this, although none had offered to take over the centre. Cllr Holland said: “Those discussions with potential other providers have happened and they haven’t taken that opportunity, so we are now in the position where we need to close the centre.”
She said it was not economic for the local authority to continue running the service. “Also it clashes or contradicts the aim of the integrated care service which is for everybody to have the same sort of standard of care on leaving hospital,” Cllr Holland said.
“The aim much more these days is to get people back home, to deliver rehab services in their homes.” About 25 staff – all women and most over 50 – are affected by closure of the council’s last rehab centre, which cared for older people between leaving hospital and going home.
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