The development of our independent living schemes is at the forefront of our strategy to provide more accommodation choice locally for older people. Our Independent Living Schemes are designed to develop and encourage mixed and vibrant communities. Our customers’ care needs are varied and can range from those with high care needs to be as with more than 21 hours per week to those who have no assessed care needs at all but could benefit from this type of accommodation.
This type of living will secure the health and wellbeing of all our residents within Central Bedfordshire where a range of solutions is required, and the council has taken a proactive role in facilitating that change whilst also promoting innovation.
Schemes focused on customers aged 55 and over that provide good quality homes with a focus on ‘living longer better’ gives potential applicants the confidence to relocate to accommodation that will meet their future needs and hopefully become their ‘lifetime home’. This has supported our drive to encourage residents to ‘right size’ and free up family-sized accommodation for those in housing need. Each scheme has led to general needs housing becoming available for families. It is important to the council that is plans for all tenures: affordable rent, shared ownership and marketing sales to meet the needs of its residents.
The council has set out significant commitment and demonstrated leadership in responding to the challenges of an ageing population through a sizeable investment programme and market influence to enable the ongoing delivery of independent living accommodation and in supporting the development of health care infrastructure for its population.
The council also fosters good relationships with other providers to ensure that older people of all tenures can have an opportunity to “right-size” and take advantage of living in a safe, shared community with help on hand when, and if, needed.
Our approach to care homes has been to encourage care home operators to develop new homes in Central Bedfordshire and then to provide enough places to allow us to consider the replacement of a nearby council-run home. For four of the outdated care homes, we negotiated additional capacity with the private sector and for the other three, we have shifted our attention to the council designing and constructing its own care homes to make more provision. This has enabled us to reflect other council priorities, including wellbeing, community cohesion and sustainability.
Our first newly built replacement care home is, Marigold House in Leighton Buzzard, which is due to open in 2023 closely followed by Steppingley Road an older person’s village in 2024. These developments will provide 135 care home place and 88 independent living homes. Both homes will be designed to Passivhaus standards, reducing energy use and will be dementia-friendly.
As well as actively supporting the independent market, the council takes its responsibility very seriously to provide care for those who cannot afford it. To us that also means ensuring good quality environments through well-designed and constructed homes. The council responded to the challenges in the care market by investing capital to build new care homes and establishing a care company to deliver care.
So, in October 2019 Central Bedfordshire Council Executive approved the creation of a company, wholly owned by the council, to deliver care services and, in June 2020, the council set up Care Is Central as part of The Central Bedfordshire Group. The company is now registered with the Care Quality Commission and is operational.
The reasons for the council creating Care is Central are to:
• maintain access to good quality social care provision for the people of Central Bedfordshire at a reasonable cost
• enable more care services to be delivered in ways that give the people who use this choice and control
• facilitate the delivery of new care homes and other types of care services for old.