'Be emotional': council's advice to supporters of under-threat care homes and day centres

The quality of the care provided by 10 residential homes and day centres whose futures have been thrown into doubt will be a factor in determining whether or not they remain open, it has emerged.

- by Paul Faulkner

The Lancashire County Council-run facilities are the subject of a controversial review which will assess their viability after the buildings from which they operate were deemed to be in "significantly poor condition".

A public consultation is currently under way into the possible "reprovision" of the services - five care homes and five day centres - which could see them shut next year.

However, the authority - which stresses that no decisions have yet been taken - has now confirmed that service quality will be among the considerations it weighs in its final decision.

It came during a meeting of the authority's health and adult services scrutiny committee, which heard concerns that not enough attention was being paid to how well people were being looked after in the under-threat facilities.

The care homes - Favordale (Colne), Grove House (Adlington), Milbanke (Kirkham), Thornton House (Thornton Cleveleys) and Woodlands (Clayton-le-Moors) - have a combined capacity to accommodate 229 people, roughly 45 at each location, with all bar Milbanke currently at least 89 per cent full.