The decision of South Lanarkshire Council’s Planning Committee on Tuesday, 17 December, followed extensive public engagement in the local area.

Following a formal tendering process, work is now scheduled to begin on the state-of-the-art facility in Spring 2020 with an expected completion date of Spring 2021.

Val de Souza, Chief Officer of South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, welcomed the Committee’s decision - and stressed the Partnership’s commitment to maintaining a meaningful dialogue with the local community remains as strong as ever.

“The new Care Hub will serve South Lanarkshire and has several elements,” explained Ms de Souza.

“This includes 20 transitional care beds for adults and older people, a centre of excellence – specialising in training and development of health and social care staff – as well as a community-facing hub.

“Whilst the bricks and mortar will be set down, we offer a concrete commitment to keeping our dialogue with the local community very much open. People of Blantyre and beyond still have a vital role to play in shaping what the community hub will look like.

“We are focused on building community life into the very fabric of the Care Hub. We know there’s an abundance of lived experience out there and we would be delighted to hear local residents’ views on how they can work with us.”

As the Partnership continues to strengthen many of its community-based supports, people who might previously have moved into a care home on a long-term basis because of ill health and/or growing dependency can be supported in their own home.

The ongoing programme of modernising care homes and the Care Hub concept seeks to build on this, offering people real choice and the chance to be supported to live independently where possible and appropriate.

The new Care Hub will also include 20 technology enabled homes for adults and older people. Technology Enabled Care (TEC) is defined as “where outcomes for individuals in home or community settings are improved through the application of technology as an integral part of quality, cost effective care and support”. It is also designed to supplement the carer element to support an individual’s independence.

The properties will come with a standard level of TEC, but also have the flexibility to scale this up, depending on needs. TEC infrastructure will be in place for long term conditions, like dementia, and access to rapid support in a crisis where and when required.

Ms de Souza added: “The approval of these plans offers not the end point of a journey but see us reach base camp. We are delighted with this decision but remain absolutely committed to our vision; Working to improve health and wellbeing in the community - with the community.”

For comments of feedback relating to the future of the community hub email: Maureen.bridges@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

or write to:

The Future of Care
c/o Maureen Bridges
South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership
South Lanarkshire Council Offices
Floor 9, Almada Street
Hamilton
ML3 0AA

Picture captions:

1. Val de Souza, Chief Officer of South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, with an architect’s model of the Blantyre Care Hub.
2. A digital impression of the state-of-the-art facility.

Notes to Editors

• Intermediate/transitional care offers short term support with the objective of allowing people to return home following a period of ill health or crisis. Intermediate/transitional care can also be preventative, preventing hospital admission.

• Survey results from the public engagement events in the summer – which were published on the Partnership website – demonstrated a strong sense of support for the Partnership’s vision of creating a more flexible and responsive model of care that offers people real choice and to live independently where possible and appropriate. The Partnership also heard, however, that there were some local concerns in Blantyre over issues including access, congestion and road safety.

• Following feedback given at events, and through the wider planning process, the Partnership took concerns and suggestions into full consideration and a revised planning application was published in October.

Val de Souza, Chief Officer of South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership, said: “Communities themselves are a vital component of our Partnership and, as people would expect, we took on board what we were told as the planning process progressed.

“On the back of this, we worked with our planning colleagues and revised the plan, with clear amendments addressing issues including access, congestion and road safety, without causing any significant delay to the process.”