Before Christmas, I met with Belper Together to discuss the ongoing situation with the Ada Belfield care home. We spoke about what is happening with the community support beds, and the privatisation of the café and leaseback of the library.
The closure of eight Derbyshire care homes, including Briar Close House in Borrowash, was raised. Belper Together and I are concerned that the Reform-led Derbyshire County Council could let this happen to the Ada Belfield care home.
Reform have since claimed that the negotiations of the eight care homes fell through because the care homes are unviable to be run by a private company – which is disputed by the companies involved in negotiations who say Reform were unwilling to engage. Those negotiations didn’t need to fall through, with the care homes now set to close and the residents facing uncertain futures.
If private companies do not want to run these care homes, there are alternative options available. I have been asking both the Conservative and Reform county council to look into Sheff-care and not-for-profit models. This would keep the care homes in the community, run by the community, with profits reinvested back into their services.
Additionally, my colleagues Linsey Farnsworth MP for Amber Valley raised this with the Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Labour has made an additional £3.7 billion of funding available for councils to fund social care. This is on top of the Fairer Funding settlement that boosted Derbyshire County Council’s budget by over £160 million, which is a 22% increase from the last settlement.
My ask to Reform-led Derbyshire County Council is to learn the lessons of this failure, and look into these options if private companies are not viable. Ada Belfield in Belper is being marketed for sale, and residents do not want to see it closing because Reform repeat their mistakes.