Lakes shock as Leonard Cheshire moves out

8:48am Wednesday 22nd October 2003

WELL-known charity Leonard Cheshire is to move out of Holehird House in Windermere after more than four decades of providing a home for disabled people on the site.

The charity said it cannot afford to upgrade both Holehird and its care home Oaklands, in Garstang, Lancashire, in order to conform to the new Care Standards Act.

The news has been broken to the 25 residents at Holehird.

North West regional director John Winkler said: “They were disappointed, they were shocked, I think, because it’s been their home for some time, which is understandable.” Mr Winkler said that an independent consultant would be appointed to talk with the residents about their needs.

He said the other main factor behind the decision was that Cumbria and Lancashire County Councils, which purchase services from Leonard Cheshire, had policies to reduce the number of residential beds and to provide a new range of services in the community.

In order to respond to the changes, Mr Winkler said that Leonard Cheshire hoped to purpose-build a £3 million care home in the Lancaster or Morecambe Bay area that would serve the needs of south Cumbria and north Lancashire.

It would accommodate 20 residents and provide ten respite care beds, and would replace Holehird and Oaklands.

Mr Winkler said: “We have been in discussion with the main purchasing organisations who are supportive of this plan and we are pretty confident we can sustain the commitment and get the necessary funds to make the service viable. Unfortunately we are not in a position to develop both services on the current sites.” Mr Winkler said that the local authorities hoped to provide alternative services to help people live on their own in the community with support, or in small groups, and it was possible Leonard Cheshire could be involved in supplying some of these services.

There are approximately 50 staff at Holehird, and Mr Winkler said he hoped they could be employed in the new Leonard Cheshire home or in the new community services.

It is not clear what will happen to the building that is owned by the Holehird Trust. A spokesman for Cumbria County Council, which manages the trust, said it was too early to comment.

Leonard Cheshire, who founded what is now the UK’s largest disability care charity, is said to have stood in the grounds of Holehird and said, “I’ll take it”.