Further scrutiny for dementia care home sales

A decision to transfer ownership of two care homes in Kirklees to the private sector is to face further scrutiny.

Earlier this month senior councillors confirmed a decision to sell off Castle Grange, in Huddersfield, and Claremont House in Heckmondwike as part of efforts to save money.

Kirklees Council said it was in talks with five companies over the future operation of the homes and it hoped to complete the transfer by April next year.

However opposition councillors have called in that decision, which means it could be reconsidered.

The two homes were selected for closure last year, but a campaign by relatives of residents at the homes prompted the council to keep them open until a permanent solution could be found.

However, the authority approved the transfer to the private sector earlier this month, which it said would save on operating and maintenance costs.

Officers were told to progress talks with five interested providers with the aim of selecting a suitable firm and reaching a transfer agreement.

However, the residents' families are said to be "extremely concerned" as private operators would not be required to freeze the current fees.

This decision has now been called in by eight opposition councillors, led by Green councillor Andrew Cooper but with support from Liberal Democrat Leader John Lawson and Community Independents Leader Ali Arshard.

It means the decision will be scrutinised by councillors who are not in the cabinet and puts the implementation of the decision on hold to allow a scrutiny panel to investigate.

It will review the evidence behind the decision and can make a non-binding recommendation to the council's cabinet.

Andrew Cooper said they wanted the financial case for the transfer to be looked at again.

"The areas that they have allowed further investigation of are the financial rationale for privatisation and concerns about financial discrepancies and opaqueness in the business case for handing these homes over to the private sector."

Avolon Rawling, who is one of the campaigners who wants to see the care homes remain under Kirklees Council control, said: "The council's claimed that privatising these two homes will save upwards of £0.8m a year.

"But there's still no transparency around how they've arrived at that number and, in my opinion, as a business analyst, I don't see that it's been arrived at through the kind of ways that I would be looking at a case like that."

Kirklees Council said the proposals to transfer the two homes to independent sectors providers would be "discussed at a council scrutiny meeting in the new year."

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