£30 million social care boost for Liverpool

Liverpool City Council has approved plans for the construction of three new centres and improved accommodation for people with learning disabilities in the city.

The £30 million plans will see three, 60 bed flexible facilities that will open by 2020 in the north, south and central areas of the city, providing state-of-the art accommodation and care for people living with dementia, as well as those with other long term residential and nursing care needs.

It is hoped that this will help reduce the number of people unnecessarily delayed in hospital following NHS treatment by getting and improve their experience of health and social care services by driving up quality standards. The new hubs will have en-suite bedrooms, areas for therapy and socialising, dining facilities and gardens.

Paul Brant, cabinet member for adult social care and health, said: “We have invested heavily in creating new social care hubs across the city in recent years, but more people are living longer and we need to make sure we have sufficient capacity in the social care system to meet the needs of people with dementia and other long-term care needs. This is against a backdrop of rising demand, massive cuts to our budget from central government – £444 million between 2010 and 2020 – and increasing pressure on the NHS.

“The facilities we are creating will help ease pressure on other, areas of the NHS which are under constant strain such as hospitals where beds are far more costly. Importantly, they will save the public purse money by ensuring that people aren’t tying up more expensive hospital beds. We have been careful to make sure that they are flexible facilities that can meet surges in demand and help to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and delays in ward discharges. Separately, we are committing to the future of Besford House, improving it to make sure that adults with learning disabilities and autism have good quality accommodation to live in.”