New Petitions

I speak on behalf of the residents of St Meddans Court in Troon and their families. South Ayrshire Council decided to dispense with residential and respite care facilities for the elderly in Troon and the residents and their families were told about the decision only in March this year. It is our understanding that the council's decision was based principally on its interpretation of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 and the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care's requirements together with a best value review and Scottish Office circular SWSG 2/97, a directive that recommends that councils move to independent sector provision to provide care for the elderly as a means to achieve cost benefits.St Meddans Court is currently home to 12 frail elderly people. The residents expected that it would be their home for the remainder of their lives. The demolition of St Meddans Court and the transfer of land to Hanover (Scotland) Housing Association will essentially deprive them of their homes. We believe that that action by the council is contrary to article 8 of the European convention on human rights. The demolition will also isolate the adjoining 24 sheltered housing accommodations and will, in effect, remove the present laundering and meal services and informal 24-hour supervision. Compensation for that will be in the form of home-care packages that will in no way attain the present level of services.South Ayrshire Council has used current legislation to discontinue services and facilities for the elderly by relinquishing its responsibilities to provide residential and respite care.Troon Community Council believes that the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 is seriously flawed if South Ayrshire Council, from its analysis of the legislation, can take action to close established residential care homes. We are here today to request that the committee investigate whether that act and associated policy documents are flawed and open to misinterpretation and whether they are being used as a means to reduce financial and social obligations. We ask that the committee consider the possibility that South Ayrshire Council has breached the ECHR.

No, I do not agree entirely that the council has such a right. The council has a right to close the facility only if it has good reason for doing so, which it does not. The council has interpreted the act and the other documents that I mentioned in a certain way. The council's decision is based on costs. To date, it has suggested no alternatives for the elderly residents and there has been no communication with the residents or with their families. The only consultation—the council called it consultation; we do not—was the council having one meeting with the residents and families. There has been no communication since then. I do not accept that South Ayrshire Council's interpretation of any of the legislation, or the actions that it has taken as a result of that, are correct.

Yes they are, because the regulations are open to misinterpretation. The national standards that have been produced as a result of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 are partly to blame. Initially, the regulations were extremely concise on what they required, but it has since been realised that many of those requirements are not needed and are not practical. South Ayrshire Council's interpretation should apply to new build; the national standards that were issued initially do not apply to existing homes, particularly good and well-structured existing homes. I blame the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 because it is open to interpretation.

I could not be specific about other parts of Scotland, but I know that homes are closing. That seems to be the trend in England too, although that has nothing to do with the Scottish act. South Ayrshire Council has already closed a home in Ayr and there are proposals to close a home in Girvan—it is not a home for the elderly, but the principle is the same. The council proposes changing that home and altering it quite drastically.

One of the standards is very specific; it covers the size of rooms and stipulates that all people must have single rooms with full en-suite facilities. At first it was thought that that standard was to apply to all physical accommodation and that is the way in which South Ayrshire Council has interpreted the standard. However, any member of the Care Commission will tell you that that standard is not required except in new builds, which is understandable. If a home is reasonable and in good condition, and partly meets the standards to the satisfaction of the Care Commission, that is quite acceptable. Although the standards have been laid down, they are open to question.

The first meeting that we had was at the council's request. After that, we instigated a public meeting. I do not think that the council feels that it has a duty, because its consultation process—if it could be called that—was practically non-existent.

It did not.

Exactly.

I would like the committee to consider the fact that South Ayrshire Council might have breached the Human Rights Act 1998 on the expectation of a home for life and on consultation.

I received that information from a member of the commission. South Ayrshire Council has said publicly that if it does not demolish St Meddan's Court and leaves the building as it is, the care commission will not register St Meddan's Court and will close it down. That is almost a quotation. The council omitted to tell us that St Meddan's Court is automatically registered, as many homes have been since the 2001 act was passed. It would be impossible for homes to stop functioning because of that act until the commission had inspected and registered them. Recognised homes are automatically registered and will be inspected for re-registering.I learned from the care commission that if a registered home wishes to discontinue being a home, it must apply to the commission. For example, South Ayrshire Council would have to apply to the care commission to deregister St Meddan's Court, and three months' notice must be given of that. Before granting deregistration, the commission requires to know all sorts of information, not the least of which is what will happen to the residents, where they will go and whether the situation is satisfactory.

The last time that I spoke to someone in the commission was a few weeks ago, at which time it had no information about South Ayrshire Council applying for deregistration. The commission knew nothing of the circumstances, other than what I had told it.

They should have, but to my knowledge, they have not.

Yes, that is exactly what they have said.

Any decision that is made, particularly a very important decision such as this, has an end result. The end result is that there are frail elderly people who are in a distressed state. That is definitely affecting their health.If the committee will bear with us, Mrs Thomson would like to speak. Mrs Thomson's mother was a resident in St Meddan's Court and she would like to tell the committee about her mother.

As Pat Brown has said, my mother was a resident at St Meddan's Court. She has lived there for approximately 10 years. She was a bright individual. She was not sitting waiting to die. She was reading, watching the television, and reading her newspapers. She was interested in politics and everything else.On 22 March, when we were told about what was going to happen, my mother collapsed in front of me. It is not just my mother who is affected. We are trying to save the place for all the old ladies and gentlemen. There is a great need for St Meddan's Court. We can fill it time and again. I agree that our local authority is just trying to opt out of caring for the elderly.

I want to talk about the buildings. If you can picture it, St Meddan's Court is the womb and the sheltered housing is the cord to the womb. The sheltered housing has 24 houses, among whose residents there are two amputees.We have had no indication that the land and the buildings have been sold. It is very expensive and valuable land in the centre of town. We have been told that the buildings will be transferred to Hanover Housing Association, which is going to build 16 flats, of which six will be two-apartment. We are led to believe that that is going to be a stand-alone Hanover Housing Association complex with facilities for the people who will live in it.The "cord" houses people who are not quite at the stage of requiring residential care, but who cannot live independently in society. They have their meals in the main part. They also have laundry facilities. The main part also provides 500 meals a week and the laundry facilities for other sheltered housing in Troon.The council has told us that the sheltered housing at the rear of the building will be refurbished and there will be a package of care tailored to the residents' needs. One of the amputees who lives there is a double amputee. She will have to go to bed at half-past 7 because that is when her "package of care" will come in to put her to bed as her "package of care" cannot come in any later. Once she is in bed, she cannot get back out. She will have to stay there until her "package of care" comes back at half-past 8 in the morning.At the moment, we are not aware of any 24-hour alarm system, although we assume that an alarm system will be put into the sheltered housing. That system will have to be activated at Ayr. As I understand it, from 10 o'clock at night the alarm system will be activated in Glasgow, which is 34 miles away. The problem is not just St Meddan's Court; there is more to it.The new Hanover Housing Association plan has a drying area for the housing complex. That will have a 6ft fence that blocks off the view of half the people who live at the back of the complex. There is no path for those people to get straight through to the shops. They—including the amputees—will have to take a circular detour. That matter has not been addressed so far and we are concerned that the package of care, which is given by a private service provider, is not adequate for the people in the sheltered housing. The issue goes further than St Meddan's Court.

Yes, publicly. I am the secretary of Troon Community Council. We called a public meeting, which was organised within three days of hearing about the closure and not getting answers from the council. More than 250 people attended the meeting, all of whom were opposed to the closure. The council's director of social work, housing and health and its social justice committee convener, Rita Miller, attended the meeting. All that we got out of them was more rhetoric about the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001. They said that if St Meddan's Court were not upgraded, the commission would shut it down.

The council has not indicated that directly to us, but, from other sources, we understand that it is to be March 2003. The council is moving quickly on the closure. St Meddan's Court has the capacity to take 16 residents, but at present it has only 12 residents. We have been told that it needs the other beds to take people who have been decanted from the sheltered housing complex about which Mrs McFarlane spoke. The council has started to run down the home. I understand that it is taking respite patients again for short periods of time after a period of not taking them at all, but that is supposed to stop again shortly.

No.