Jobs at risk as Sheffield care home put up for sale

Managers at Newfield Nursing Home in Heeley also said they were consulting with staff about possible redundancies should a sale not be possible.

Nicola Richards, the director of Palms Row Health Care, who operate Newfield and two other homes in the city, said she had ‘repeatedly warned’ that care home closures would be likely without better support from the NHS and Sheffield Council.

But Palms Row were themselves criticised earlier this year after 21 residents across their three city care homes died with Covid-19, with some relatives claiming that a decision to move vulnerable people between homes during the pandemic had put their loved ones at risk.

Ms Richards added that she hoped any employees who did lose their jobs could be redeployed at the group’s other homes, Westbourne House and Northfield in Grimesthorpe, or find work through Palms Row’s agency staff company Heritage Oaks Healthcare and other providers in the city.

She said: “In many ways, Covid-19 has been the straw that broke the camel’s back. Care homes across the country are struggling and our news today is a sad reminder that social care needs urgent support and long-term funding solutions agreed in order to be viable.

“At Northfield and Westbourne homes, Palms Row will continue to provide all of the necessary support to make sure that ongoing care for residents continues to the same high standards that we have provided for many years and we will continue to put pressure on those who make the decisions and those who neglected care homes before and during the crisis.”

Palms Row added the one remaining private resident at Newfield would be offered a transfer to Westbourne or Northfield, and that relatives of residents who were transferred from Newfield at the start of the pandemic had been informed of the situation.

The care sector in Sheffield has been particularly badly hit by coronavirus, with hundreds of deaths taking place across the city’s homes since the pandemic began in March.

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