The Salvation Army is considering transferring or closing its residential care homes as it is no longer able to maintain the “high standards our residents need”, it has said.
This week, the Christian charity, which runs 11 residential care homes across the UK, announced that it would “transition from providing residential care for older people to grow its community-based support model”.
It said it is actively exploring transferring six care homes to alternative providers, while a formal consultation will shortly begin on the potential closure of the remaining facilities.
These are Davidson House and Eagle Lodge in Edinburgh, Holt House in Manchester, the Hawthorns in Buxton and Dewdown House in Weston Super Mare.
A spokesperson for the charity confirmed to Civil Society that “178 staff are currently being consulted about the possible closure of a care home they’re working for which could result in them being made redundant”.
“In terms of money saved, we don’t run homes to make a profit but rising costs and recruitment issues mean many of our homes need emergency funding to keep them open,” they said.
“This year alone, we need to spend around £3m modernising and adapting our 11 homes. This isn’t a one-off cost, and our buildings would need further costly building and alteration work in years to come which would also run into millions of pounds.”
Buildings require ‘significant modernisation’
Glenda Roberts, director of older people’s services at the Salvation Army, said the residential care homes do not have the specialised clinical expertise needed by “an ageing population who are increasingly developing more complex conditions”.
“Our buildings would also require significant modernisation,” she said.
“Salvation Army Corps (community churches) already support thousands of older people every week and building on this community work will mean we can reach even deeper into communities to support many more vulnerable older people.
“Taking action now will allow us to reach more people in the future but we know how difficult residents and our staff will find this news.
“Our immediate focus is on our current residents, their loved ones and of course our staff while we make this change.”
Roberts said there will be a formal consultation period with the charity’s care home staff.
“Following the consultation, if a home does close, our focus will be to settle every single resident into new accommodation with the support of our partners.”
‘It would take many millions to change our staffing’
Roberts attributed the charity’s decision to transfer or close its care homes to societal changes in the last few years, “which make it increasingly difficult for our model of residential care to maintain the high standards our residents need”.
She said: “The biggest challenge is an ageing society. Residents are joining us later in life which means they often have more complex needs.
“It would take many millions to change our staffing, governance and expertise to be able to offer the specialised nursing required and to adapt our buildings.
“Other care home providers are better placed to meet the complex and changing clinical needs of older people.”
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