Cabinet approved closing Southfields House and Obelisk House, the council's two care homes, over up to 24 months on 10 November. New admissions stop first.
West Northamptonshire Council’s two care homes, Southfields House and Obelisk House in Northampton, would close over up to 24 months under plans going to Cabinet on Tuesday 10 November. Southfields would close first, within 12 months, and Obelisk second. New admissions to both homes would stop as soon as the programme begins.
Updated 11 November: Cabinet approved the closures on 10 November, along with Eleanor Lodge and the Longlands and Forum day service changes, according to the decision notice. The decision can be called in until 17 November and cannot be acted on before 18 November. Our report on the decision.
The same report recommends closing Eleanor Lodge, a council-run supported living service for younger disabled adults, and closing council-run day services at Longlands in Daventry and The Forum in Towcester.
The recommendations are in the Adult Social Care Provider Services Review Outcome report for the meeting, which starts at 6pm. The report says the case for change “is not based on a failure of frontline care”.
The two care homes
Each home has 44 beds and provides residential and dementia care for older people and adults with physical disabilities. Southfields House is on Farmhill Road in Southfields and Obelisk House is on Obelisk Rise.
The report gives these reasons for closing them:
- both buildings are more than 40 years old and have no en-suite bedrooms
- both have significant limits on wheelchair access, hoisting, privacy and dementia-friendly care
- agency staff covered 33.2% of budgeted hours at Southfields and 21.8% at Obelisk
- keeping both open safely would need about £282,000 more a year per home in staffing
- converting them to en-suite rooms would cut capacity to about 23 rooms at Southfields and 22 at Obelisk
Southfields was rated Good by the Care Quality Commission in September 2023. Obelisk was rated Requires Improvement in December 2022.
The council says about 400 independent-sector care home beds were vacant when the review evidence was compiled. The report adds that this “is not treated as proof of suitability” and every placement would need individual matching.
What residents and families said
The council consulted between June and September. Most people who answered opposed closure:
| Home | Supported refurbishment or redevelopment | Opposed closure |
|---|---|---|
| Southfields House | 67.27% | 88.24% |
| Obelisk House | 56.20% | 89.17% |
The Obelisk House consultation report records 126 returned questionnaires. The Southfields House report records 60.
The Cabinet report says it “does not treat this feedback as support for closure”. It says the feedback changed how closure would happen instead: the timetable was stretched to 24 months, Southfields would close before Obelisk, and Southfields residents could move to Obelisk where that suits them.
Members of the Adults, Public Health and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee were briefed on 26 October. The report says the committee “supported the option of a safe, slow closure approach”, though members differed on how long the transition should be.
The safeguards promised
The report sets out conditions for the closure programme. They include:
- no resident moves until their needs are reassessed and a placement and transition plan are agreed
- families, carers and advocates involved throughout
- friendship groups kept together where practicable
- safe staffing kept up, using agency cover if needed
- no decision on selling or reusing the sites until the council’s property process has considered them
Cllr Laura Couse, Cabinet Member for Adult Care and Public Health, said in the council’s announcement: “We recognise these recommendations will be difficult for some people and Cabinet will consider them carefully and sensitively.”
Eleanor Lodge and day services
Eleanor Lodge is part of a service supporting 23 younger adults with disabilities, 16 of them living at the Lodge. The service is rated Good by the Care Quality Commission. The report says the building “cannot be extended, has limited accessibility and shared facilities”. Its residents would be helped to find other supported living, with care bought from commissioned providers.
Council day services support about 131 people. Under the plans:
- specialist day services for people with the most complex needs would stay and be brought together at Gladstone Road in Northampton
- day services at Olympus House would stop
- the Social and Leisure services at Longlands in Daventry and The Forum in Towcester would close
- the Social and Leisure service at Gladstone Road would move to commissioned providers
- the LIVE Community and Enablement Service at No. 2 Abington Park Cottages would not change
Scrutiny members raised concerns about alternatives in rural areas such as Daventry, the report says.
The money
The report compares the yearly cost of running the services as they are with the cost after the changes.
- day services: from £2,070,740 to £1,836,470 a year
- specialist support services: from £1,490,550 to £1,003,062 a year
- the two care homes: from £4,657,019 to £3,350,657 a year
The care home figure includes the extra staffing the homes would need to stay open. The council expects the care home closures to cost £201,134 in 2028/29 before saving £943,496 in 2029/30. Once every change is complete, the report puts the recurring saving to the council’s base budget at £1,464,120 a year.
Redundancy and pension costs are estimated at up to £2.3m, which the report calls a “prudent worst-case” figure. The report counts 38.88 full-time-equivalent staff at Southfields and 39.49 at Obelisk. Formal consultation with staff would begin after the Cabinet decision.
What it means for you
If a relative lives at Southfields House or Obelisk House, nothing changes before Cabinet decides on 10 November. If Cabinet approves the plan, the council says each resident will be reassessed and nobody will be asked to move until a new placement has been agreed with them and their family.
You can watch or read the papers for the meeting on the council’s Cabinet page. We reported in October on the council’s adult social care waiting lists.
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