'Good' Harrogate care home to be shutdown as building no longer fit for purpose

A Harrogate care home rated as '˜good' by the Care Quality Commission is being shutdown to reprovide services at a new purpose built facility.
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Woodfield House Elderly Person’s Home, on Woodfield Square in Harrogate, was rated as ‘good’ overall by the Care Quality Commission in May last year.

But a report seeking permission to close down the services at Woodfield House, with residents transferred elsewhere by August this year, was approved by North Yorkshire County Council’s Executive on Tuesday (March 13).

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Executive Member for Health at NYCC, Coun Michael Harrison, said: “If you look at somewhere like Woodfield it is a traditional elderly persons home which maybe 30 years ago, in terms of layout and facilities, would have been acceptable.

“But these days there is a greater demand and requirement for the accommodation providers to be more fit for modern care.”

The council-run 28 bed home includes a five bed unit for people living with dementia.

But the home has only eight permanent residents and the dementia facility is not in use due to difficulties in recruiting staff, with more than 250 hours currently vacant.

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The report also states that the building is in the “poorest condition across all of the council’s residential care accommodation”.

But a number of staff and residents from Woodfield are set to be relocated to a new facility in Starbeck as part of a £7.7 million scheme by the Harrogate Neighbours Housing Association (HNHA).

Construction is underway to transform a former NYCC highways depot into a 55 unit assisted living facility.

Coun Harrison said that the council’s current care strategy is focussed on assisted living, and that as well as providing a site for the new facility in Starbeck, NYCC had invested £400,000 into the scheme.

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The investment gives the council nomination rights to 22 of the units provided, but onsite care will be provided by charitable group, HNHA.

Construction is expected to be completed in June, with residents transferred by July.

Seperately, a new purpose-built five bed dementia facility is also planned on Station View in Starbeck to replace the council’s out-of-use unit at Woodfield.

Coun Harrison said there would be no redundancies as a result of the reprovision of services at Woodfield and places for all residents have been found at alternative council-run care provisions.