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Cumbria County Council’s Cabinet is set to discuss the risk of flooding to care homes across the county – including Edenside residential home for the elderly in Appleby.

Measures to address how the county council should protect people in the long term in three of its care homes which are classed as a potential flood risk will be considered by the county council's Cabinet next week.

There are three county council-run homes in Cumbria considered to be in flood risk areas and recommendations for each home will be considered at the meeting,

The flood risk for Edenside in Appleby has been described in the recommendations as borderline between 'significant' and 'moderate' - but the chance of flooding in any year is still between 1.3 per cent (1 in 75) and 0.5 per cent (1 in 200).

Appleby has experienced several cases of extreme flooding over recent years, but flood defence work has been carried out by the Environment Agency. Although the location of Edenside which has 25 beds means that the home is surrounded by water when there is flooding in Appleby, the home itself has never flooded, nor has there ever been any recommendation to evacuate, although residents have been moved upstairs as a precaution.

Edenside has a communal lounge area available on the first floor which residents could move to temporarily during a flooding event. The location of the home and road access mean that evacuation could be difficult to carry out. The rain in November 2009 did not affect the Appleby area to the same extent as other parts of the county.

The recommendation is to continue to operate as at present and monitor risks associated with flooding and take appropriate action.

At the Abbey in Staveley the flood risk is classed as 'moderate' - the chance of flooding in any year is 1.3 per cent (1 in 75) or less, but greater than 0.5 per cent (1 in 200). The Abbey (30 beds) has experienced several incidents of flooding over the last three years. This flooding was restricted to the cellar and in all instances required the water to be pumped out. The pumping arrangements have been upgraded following the last flooding in 2009. Residents have never been evacuated or considered to be at any kind of risk. The Abbey has a communal lounge area available on the first floor which residents could move to temporarily during a flooding event.

Recommendations here are also to continue to operate as at present and monitor risks associated with flooding and take appropriate action.

Ravensfield in Keswick has remained unoccupied since the home was evacuated on 19 November 2009. The flood risk for Ravensfield which has 30 beds is classed as 'significant', with the chance of flooding currently rated as 1 in 50.

The Environment Agency classify the land around Ravensfield Care Home to be at significant risk, which means the chance of flooding each year is greater than 1.3 per cent (1 in 75). The defences adjacent to Ravensfield offer a level of protection with the chance of flooding currently rated as 2% or 1 in 50.

The Environment Agency is examining the scope to upgrade the Keswick flood defence in 2011, although funding has not yet been agreed. If this work does go ahead, the works would seek to provide a minimum of 1 in 75 protection, which would take Ravensfield into the 'moderate' risk category, where the risk of flooding would be less than 1.3 per cent. Whilst this would reduce the likelihood of flooding, it does not reduce the consequences.

Ravensfield has been evacuated twice in the last five years due to the risk of flooding and residents need to be evacuated relatively early before the waters rise to a certain level so ambulances can be used to support safe evacuation rather than boats and helicopters. The layout of the home is such that evacuation upstairs is not possible as there are no lounges upstairs, only small bedrooms and bathrooms. The residents with bedrooms on the ground floor could not therefore be accommodated upstairs. In the November floods, the home narrowly avoided being flooded, although the outside walls were submerged to varying depths, there was some water ingress to the lift shaft and various ducts, and the home lost electrical supply for two days.

The 22 residents who were living at Ravensfield were moved to other Cumbria Care homes in Penrith or West Cumbria after being evacuated. Of the 22, only five residents say they wish to return to Ravensfield with no other preference and three would like to consider returning, but would also consider staying in their current home or moving to an alternative. The rest have either said they wish to stay in alternative permanent homes, have expressed no preference, or have passed away.

There are currently 29 Cumbria Care employees at Ravensfield - one manager (temporary appointment), 20 support workers, four supervisors and four ancillaries. Redeployment opportunities have been made available to all staff whilst the home has not been re-occupied. The majority of employees at Ravensfield travel to work from outside the local Keswick area and have not been adversely affected by the closure. It has become increasingly difficult to recruit care staff in the Keswick area. There were several staff vacancies at the time of the closure, including a vacancy for the home manager.

If Ravensfield was closed after consultation, permanent offers of redeployment could be made with little to no recourse to redundancy. The home is not to a standard which we would wish, with small bedrooms, very few en-suite facilities and narrow corridors. This is not an environment which is conducive to providing high quality care particularly for those requiring wheelchairs or hoisting in and out of bed."

Recommendations here are to undertake a formal consultation on the proposal to not re-occupy Ravensfield and close the home on a permanent basis.

All of the recommendations have been made so that the level of risk faced by residents and staff at the homes does not increase. If approved, the county council's Adult and Cultural Services Scrutiny Committee will be invited to oversee the development of detailed consultation arrangements.

As well as the assessment of flood risk, the recommendations have been made at a time when demand for residential care in the county is predicted to fall as more people seek to live independently in their own homes. There is capacity in other independently run homes in Keswick and surrounding areas and there is also a wider range of options being developed to help people live independently. A night time high-level domiciliary care service has been set up in Keswick to support people at home. A local housing association has also prioritised the development of a 40-bed extra care housing scheme in Keswick and will be bidding for capital funding for the scheme in the summer. Before its evacuation, Ravensfield had already experienced a drop in its occupancy rates in just six months.

Cllr James Airey, Cumbria County Council's Cabinet member responsible for adult social care, said: "The consequences of flooding are much greater for a care home than for a normal property. Urgent evacuations can put vulnerable people's lives at risk, but staying in a building which could be flooded also puts their lives at risk. The council needs to assess this risk and take appropriate action to ensure the long-term safety of the frail and elderly residents in our care homes.

"The recommendations we are making are being made after thorough assessments have been carried out, but I must stress that no decision has been made to close Ravensfield, we are simply planning to consult with local people on what they think. These are clearly emotive issues and we have already contacted the former residents of Ravensfield and their families to explain what's happening. But we must look at this issue very carefully, because a situation where we've had to evacuate a home twice in the last five years, putting lives at risk and causing an enormous amount of disruption for families, remains a serious worry for us.

"Public protection is our main driving force in this recommendation - it is no cheaper for us to place people in other homes, we want what's best and safest for them."

 

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