IMPLEMENTATION AND COMPLETION OF THE EXTRA NURSING HOME AND NURSING CARE EXTENSION (ENHANCE) NURSING STRATEGY

On 21 January 2008, the Cabinet considered a report detailing the successful implementation of the County Council's innovative project "ENHANCE" to provide 10 new nursing homes in Hampshire between 2004 and 2007 as follows:

The primary focus of the project was to develop additional long term, state of the art nursing care capacity for older people by creating 500 new places. Currently 454 beds are open with the remaining 46 being phased in as staff are recruited. The project has avoided costs of over £12m and has reduced delayed discharges. The County Council has approximately 1,800 clients requiring nursing care and by focussing its investment on creating new nursing care beds, the County Council has achieved better value for money than if it had gone down the route of increasing the funding for private care placements.

The County Council is the only local authority in the country to have designed, developed, built and be running its own nursing care homes, the construction of which were completed on time and within budget and won `project of the year' at the Constructing Excellence, London and South East Awards.

In congratulating all those involved in the project, the Cabinet welcomed the good co-operation between NHS organisations and the County Council's Adult Services and Property Services departments, demonstrated by the successful completion of the project. They also recognised that the state of the art care available provides for timely re-ablement to allow people to return to living within the community, wherever possible, thus maximising well-being.