New Lodge Background Support Services

Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT) is seeking to appoint a suitably experienced care provider to deliver 24-hour, seven-day-a-week ad hoc and background support services at New Lodge Extra Care Housing Scheme in New Earswick, York.

New Lodge is a purpose-built extra care scheme comprising 105 apartments, of which approximately 70% are occupied by tenants and 30% by shared owners. The scheme enables residents to live independently while having access to on-site background and emergency support when required.

JRHT currently directly employs staff to provide the background support service and individual planned packages of regulated care. Following a review of its care services, JRHT intends to appoint a third-party provider to deliver specified elements of the background support service.

The appointed provider will be required to maintain an on-site presence 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The services include:

•immediate response to emergency alarm cords and pendants;

•out-of-hours security checks and an on-site overnight presence;

•out-of-hours contractor liaison and reporting of emergency repairs;

•checks on equipment and alarms within residents’ homes;

•emergency response and support with evacuation arrangements;

•response to out-of-hours main-door activations;

•assistance for residents accessing activities and communal areas;

•temporary short-term support in response to illness or changes in need;

•temporary support to prevent hospital admission or facilitate discharge; and

•emergency support where an informal carer is unexpectedly unavailable.

JRHT will remain the landlord and will continue to employ staff responsible for its housing and landlord functions. The provider will be expected to work closely with JRHT’s on-site staff to support residents’ wellbeing and the safe operation of the scheme.

Residents will continue to have the right to choose their provider for individual planned packages of care. JRHT would, however, welcome a provider with the capacity to offer planned care directly to residents under separate arrangements where residents choose to use the appointed provider. No volume or value of planned care is guaranteed.

The opportunity may also allow the provider to establish wider domiciliary care services in New Earswick and the surrounding area. Any such services would be separate from the contracted background support service.

The provider must maintain the registrations, permissions and appropriately trained workforce required to deliver the services, including relevant Care Quality Commission registration. The provider must also maintain appropriate safeguarding, governance, insurance, business continuity and quality assurance arrangements.