COUNCIL bosses have approved the permanent closure of two care facilities for people leaving hospital stays.

The decision made by Bradford Council’s Executive on Tuesday means that the mothballed facilities – Thompson Court in Crossflatts and Norman Lodge in Odsal, will not re-open.

The Executive was given an update on Intermediate Care Facilities – services that support people leaving hospital and promote recovery from illness.

The council announced that the two homes would be mothballed earlier this year, with residents gradually moved into other facilities or helped return to their homes.

Another similar facility, Woodward Court in Allerton, has already been closed, and the building sold at auction.

The report to the Executive suggested there should be a greater focus on a ‘Home First’ model to help older people stay at home with more responsive services, rather than requiring residential care.

Staff and funds should be directed to achieving this rather than maintaining the larger homes, members were told.

Iain MacBeath, strategic director for adult social care and health, assured members that staff from these homes would be re-deployed elsewhere in Adult Services.

He said: “There has been an investment in facilities that allow people to go back home.

“When people are in hospital, their preference is to go back to their homes where possible.”

The report said: “System partners agreed to the mothballing of Thompson Court care facility in Crossflatts from January 2024 due to underoccupancy, to see if the system could cope with a smaller number of beds. This does not appear to have affected performance around the requirement for short-stay beds.

“Due to positive changes made to other care pathways since then to enable ‘Home First’, occupancy at Norman Lodge care facility in Odsal has dropped to around 50 per cent of available beds so partners agreed to the mothballing of that facility to assess system resilience.

"It closed to new admissions from 19 February and system performance is manageable with few people waiting for onward care packages.

“The decision to close Woodward Court and the recommendation to permanently close Thompson Court and Norman Lodge will save approximately £4.1m in 2024-25 from the adult social care budget and will be used to mitigate existing departmental budget pressures.”

Council leader Susan Hinchcliffe said: “These were not long-term residents in these homes – it was people coming out of hospital who needed more time before they moved back home.”

Members then voted to approve the permanent closure of the homes.