The petition of the residents of Wellingborough, Rushden, and the surrounding areas.
Sheweth, that the petitioners are deeply concerned by West Northamptonshire Council’s decision to close Spinneyfields Specialist Care Centre on 29th January 2023; notes that Northamptonshire’s two acute hospitals, Kettering General Hospital and Northampton General Hospital have on average over 200 people a day who are medically fit to be discharged but cannot be; further notes that Spinneyfields is a 51-bed step-down facility and has the potential to provide essential additional capacity in step-down care locally.
Wherefore your petitioners pray that your honourable House urges the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to work with Northamptonshire’s Integrated Care Board, West Northamptonshire Council and North Northamptonshire Council to utilise Spinneyfields Specialist Care Centre as a step-down facility accepting discharges from Northamptonshire’s acute hospitals.
And your petitioners, as duty bound, will ever pray, &c.—[Presented by Mr Peter Bone, Official Report, 7 February 2023; Vol. 727, c. 879.]
[P002801]
Observations from The Minister for Social Care (Helen Whately):
The Government are aware that Spinneyfields is one of four specialist short-term care centres in West Northamptonshire and that, following an extensive period of discussion with local stakeholders, the local authority has taken the difficult decision to close the centre as it has remained underutilised. The Secretary of State met my hon. Friend the Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) to discuss this case.
Local authorities are best placed to understand, plan for, and make decisions about, the care and support needs of their local population. That is why, under the Care Act 2014, local authorities are tasked with the duty to shape their care market to ensure a diverse and sustainable range of high-quality care services are provided.
Local authorities also have a temporary duty, under the Care Act, to ensure continuity of care if a provider exits the market. This is to ensure that people continue to receive the care and support they need. The Department regularly monitors the risks to provider viability and continuity of care in England, and despite the pressures the market faces, the number of adult social care locations registered with the Care Quality Commission has remained stable.
On 9 January, the Department announced up to £200 million to fund short-term NHS step-down care packages. Integrated Care Boards, working closely with local authorities, will use this to purchase places in care homes and other settings, such as hospices, as well as to help fund wrap-around primary and community health services to support patients' recovery. NHS England expects that this will allow an additional 2,500-3,000 patients to be discharged from hospitals into other care settings, freeing up much-needed acute beds and clinical capacity. This funding is specifically for short term care and will be used to purchase a maximum of four weeks of bedded care per patient.
The Department also provided £500 million to support discharge from hospital into social care and intermediate care over December-March 2022-23. The funding was shared between local authorities and NHS Integrated Care Boards, through the Better Care Fund. Local areas were required to use the funding to reduce the number of delayed discharges and bed days lost to delayed discharge, with flexibility over how they do that, taking account of the local context. Many local areas chose to spend that funding on bedded provision, although that was a local decision. A further £600 million will be distributed in 2023-24 and £1 billion in 2024-25 through the Better Care Fund to support safe and timely discharge from hospital into adult social care, including reducing the number of delayed discharges. The funding will be split between local authorities and NHS Integrated Care Boards and pooled through the Better Care Fund framework.