Hartlepool care homes best for 'four or five years' as only one 'requires improvement'

Hartlepool Borough Council chiefs stated 15 of the 16 care homes in the town are now rated ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission, with Warrior Park receiving an upgrade following the recent publishing of its inspection report.

This leaves De Bruce Court as the only home rated ‘Requires Improvement’ and means 93.75% of care homes for the elderly in the town are ‘Good’.

This is an improvement from the 75% rated as ‘Good’ in March 2019 and the 81% figure reported in November 2019.

Council officers noted they are working ‘very closely’ with De Bruce Court, who have a new manager in place, and added they have already seen improvements in recent months.

Councillors on the Adult and Community Based Services Committee praised the improvements in care homes in the town compared to the picture several years ago.

Coun Stephen Thomas said the situation with care homes in the town is looking better than it has for several years and the town is starting to see the results from improvements put in place.

He told the meeting: “I think it’s a far more positive picture than the one we had in Hartlepool going back four or five years, where we had a significant number of homes which were either requires improvement or were in some instances inadequate.

“I think we really are starting to see the fruits of some of those improvements that have happened.

“Overall I think it is a very, very positive picture, an improving picture and one which gives older, vulnerable people in Hartlepool some good choice with regards to homes that they go in to and also an assurance that our homes in Hartlepool are good.”

However one area in which some concerns were raised was the number of vacancies at care homes in the borough, with 89 beds currently available across residential and nursing provision.

Coun Thomas added: “While it I think it’s a good thing to have some capacity within the system I would guess that equates to something like about two empty care homes and that is a significant number.

“I think running with that number of vacancies across the system for a prolonged period of time could put some pressure on the financial viability and sustainability in the longer term.”

Danielle Swainston, council assistant director for joint commissioning services, said they would be doing a piece of work reviewing vacancies in the coming months.

She added she thought this could be down to people living in their own homes longer, but noted there are also positives to the high vacancy rate.

She said: “We seem to have some of the highest vacancies we’ve had for a long time, but it’s positive that we have got availability across our homes, most of them have some vacancies now.”