Neighbourhood Resource Centres for Older People
March 6, 2009
One of the concerns expressed about introducing the private sector into
public services is that a focus on the bottom line can crowd out the social
dimension. This is one of the reasons why there have been few social care
private finance initiative schemes.
The success of Greenwich’s Neighbourhood Resource Centres for Older People deal shows that it doesn’t have to be this way. The scheme is the result of a consultation that found that traditional residential care was unlikely to meet the local community’s future needs. The council began work on its own model, the NeighbourhoodResource Centres (NRCs), to provide a range of residential, nursing, intermediate and day services on a single site.
In September 2002 the council commissioned the ASK (Greenwich) consortium
(Kier Project Investments and Shaftesbury Housing Group), to provide three NRCs
at a capital cost of £24m. All were delivered ahead of schedule. Caring for the elderly requires a degree of sensitivity to residents’ needs.
For example, despite the consortium being contracted to provide three meals a day, dementia sufferers often do better eating little and often. Catering staff have thus introduced sandwiches and other snacks available throughout the day to meet this need.
The judges were impressed by the council’s positive view of the deal. The NRCs have experienced low death rates, with the health of many residents actually improved.
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