Agenda item

To consider matters referred to Cabinet  from Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Leader of the Council invited Councillor Connor, Chair of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel to introduce the Scrutiny report on Osborne Grove Nursing Home.

Cllr Connor put forward to Cabinet a recommendation to pause the implementation of the decision to close Osborne Grove Nursing Home, allowing the options appraisal for the provision of nursing care on the site to be taken into account.

Cllr Connor contended that the December decision to close the nursing home had been taken on the understanding that an Options Appraisal for the site would be considered at the January Cabinet meeting. However, as this had been delayed, a pause in the decision to close the Nursing Home was felt appropriate until this information became available.

The reasons for a pause in closure of the nursing home were further put forward by Cllr Connor. This included considering the risks of moving elderly people from the nursing home, the Council’s overarching duty of care to the Osborne Grove residents, and the consultation results, which indicated strongly against closure. The July 2017 Care Quality Commission findings were also referred to as these acknowledged the   improvements to the home, since previous inspections.

Cllr Connor referred to the ‘requires improvement’ CQC rating for Osborne Grove and questioned why a similar closure action was not being taken forward with Priscilla Wakefield Nursing Home, which was also rated as ‘requires improvement’.

Cllr Connor contended that Osborne Grove residents were likely to move to placements outside of the borough given there were no ‘good’ CQC rated nursing homes in the borough. As a consequence, there would be waiting lists for entry to the nursing homes and residents could be subject to, potentially, two moves.

Cllr Connor concluded by urging Cabinet to pause closure until the Options Appraisal was available. This time would enable further support to be given to staff to improve their confidence and care provision. Also, Cllr Connor suggested that the Care Quality Commission could be called back to assess the quality of care in this interim period to further provide assurance.

The Leader asked the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Culture to respond, adding that no new information had been put forward to Cabinet from Scrutiny to consider a pause in closure. In addition, the CQC July inspection findings referred to had already been considered at the December Cabinet meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Culture thanked Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel for the time and attention given to ensuring that the process for the closure of Osborne Grove Nursing Home was carried out as smoothly as possible. Cllr Vanier further thanked family carers, staff members and other stakeholders who attended Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel on 8^th February and made representations on behalf of their loved ones, currently living at Osborne Grove Nursing Home.

The Cabinet Member continued to provide the following response to the Scrutiny recommendation:

• The decision to close a care home was not one which any Council would take lightly and, the Council had considered the matter from every angle. The Cabinet Member reiterated that the safety and welfare of residents had always been and would continue to be the Council’s paramount concern. The Council further recognised that such a decision had a profound impact on residents and their families and friends for whom Osborne Grove was their home and there was an understanding of these the feelings.

• The decision to close Osborne Grove Nursing Home was made on the basis of the quality of care and sustainability issues set out at length in the December 12^th Cabinet report. It was not a decision made contingent on the future use of the site for nursing care or other options relating to the provision of nursing care. The Cabinet Member advised that quality of care and sustainability issues remained prevalent despite every effort by staff and managers. The regular audits conducted by management continued to highlight non-compliance issues in the safe care and treatment of residents. Further, the Establishment Concerns meeting that recently met to consider quality and safeguarding issues was not satisfied in regards to safe care and treatment.  Members included Commissioning Quality Assurance, the CCG clinical and assurance staff, CCG safeguarding lead and CQC representative.

• The process of implementing the 12^th December Cabinet decision was already underway. In line with that decision, and as set out in the recent Information Packs provided to residents and their families recommended by the Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel, the multi-agency reassessments of residents were being carried out. Some residents had moved and a number of others were at the point of being ready to move, having found suitable, alternative accommodation.  It was reported that these residents and their families felt confident about the move, that they were satisfied with the new facilities and had been effectively engaged in the process.

• It was still the view that the best interests of residents were best served by ensuring that their care and support needs can be met in a high quality setting. The anxiety and disruption caused by changes to the process at this stage would risk destabilising residents and building anxiety into what was already a difficult and testing time. 

• The options appraisal was a distinct piece of work, which sets out future options for the use of the site for nursing care in the future, in effect once closure of the home had occurred. Keeping the home open on exactly the same basis as current conditions was not one of the options being considered when carrying out the options appraisal. This was due to closure of the home being considered as taken place.

• The Cabinet Member reiterated that the nursing home as currently constituted:

was not sustainable, could not deliver the quality of care consistently as required, was not built to the standards required for a nursing care provision and did not contain the capacity required to make it economically viable for any future provider.

The Cabinet Member for Adult and Social Care concluded by advising that she did not support the recommendation of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and advised Cabinet not to accept a pause in the current process of closure.

Further to considering, the reasons set out by the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Culture, Cabinet

RESOLVED

To not accept the Scrutiny recommendation of a pause in the current process of closure for Osborne Grove Nursing Home.