Care home closure guidance being developed

The Welsh Government is working with the Older People's Commissioner for Wales, Sarah Rochira, to establish guidance to ensure older people's rights are protected when care homes close.

Ms Rochira, who took over as Older People's Commissioner in June this year, said: "There is currently a lack of guidance that specifically outlines good practice when closing care homes as a result of a policy decision.

"I am pleased to have been asked by the Welsh Government to chair a working group that will advise them as it develops statutory guidance on this matter."

Recent figures obtained by BBC Wales revealed that the trend towards closing council-run care homes has continued with the loss of 600 beds over the last five years. 

The Welsh Government guidance is still being developed but Ms Rochira has sent letter to all local authorities in Wales outlining her expectations when care home closures or the transfer of care to the private sector is being considered.

These include:  

• conducting meaningful consultation and engagement
  
• providing independent advocacy
  
• carrying ongoing impact assessments
  
• securing the human rights of care home residents 
  

She added: "I will be closely monitoring the way that care home closures across Wales are managed so that older people's rights are upheld."

More on this story: www.olderpeoplewales.com/news 

Figures show five-year decline in number of council-run care home beds

Number of council-run care home beds declines 

Research by the BBC has revealed that more than 600 council-run care home places have been lost in Wales over the last five years and forecasts are that the trend will continue.

The figures, obtained by BBC Radio Cymru's Post Cyntaf programme, show one in five beds have been cut in the past five years as local councils close residential homes and opt for care delivered to residents in their own home or in private sector care accommodation.

Trend towards care at home and in private sector accommodation set to continue

Mark Drakeford, chair of the Welsh assembly's Health and Social Care Committee, said the transfer of care to private sector providers was a long-term trend that had been going on for 10 years or more, and was expected to carry on into the next decade, but he added that "on the whole it's not necessarily bad news".

"Local authorities have invested money into creating services that allow people to stay at home for longer, where on the whole, we think people prefer to be."

"I think it is important to maintain a diversity within the residential care market. The fact the local authority may not have any homes under its direct control may not mean that there are not choices for people.

"There may be homes in the private sector and in the not-for-profit sector, as well, but it is important that every local authority takes careful steps to manage the market in their own area."

He said money was not the "key driver" behind the changes in social care, insisting people preferred to remain in their own homes.

"We have an ageing population so the age in which someone enters a residential care home is quite different to what it would have been half a century, a quarter of a century, ago," he added.

More on this story: bbc.co.uk/wales/news