Cauwood Day Service

Alternative care and support options for people would be dependent on sensitive and joined-up reviews and re-assessments, involving people and their families and carers to identify suitable alternative solutions and support are identified, promoting choice and taking account of friendships alongside personal and social needs.

As part of the consultation, we are focusing on three key areas:

• what Cauwood means to you and your family
• what the impact of a closure of Cauwood would be on you and your family
• what opportunities you can see or you want to see in the future

Following these conversations, we will be undertaking reviews with each person and their families and carers to look at identifying alternative support that meets their personal outcomes.

We are working closely with local community services to bring together all the options of support available moving forward.

Advocacy and additional support will be made available to people demonstrating signs and symptoms of stress related to the closure.

The key focus would be on supporting each person to be introduced to any new activity in a way which suits them. For some people this might take longer than others and we will work with the person, family and carers to ensure a clear plan is in place before any transition was to happen.

If anyone requires any additional support during this period, we will work with them individually to make sure this is in place.

Sensitive consultation will take place with people and their families prior to making any decision about the future of Cauwood, working closely with Locality Care and Support Teams. People and their families will be supported by colleagues from across Health and Adult Services to ensure their wishes and aspirations are understood so that suitable alternative support can be identified. These discussions will promote choice, noting the importance of friendships alongside personal and social needs.

Advocacy and additional support will be made available to people demonstrating signs and symptoms of stress related to the closure.

Clear communications and sensitive consultation with the staff team will take place. Staff will be supported by their line manager, managers from across Care Provider Services and Human Resources.

Focussed discussions have taken place with existing providers of day services in Malton and Pickering. Initially to explore development opportunities, expanding the reach and offer to meet specific needs and interests of people at Cauwood. Local providers have expressed an appetite to progress discussions around development opportunities. Conversations with people and families led by our social work team will take place to help us to shape more detailed development discussions, ensuring this is focussed on what matters to the people affected and their carers.

Work is already underway to develop an Individual Service Fund pilot in North Yorkshire. Care providers in Malton have been well engaged in this work and there is appetite to work with us on new developments.

We are the freehold owners of the building and land on which it sits.

All three sites have contiguous boundaries, however Cauwood and Ashfield are both within the same legal title. Ryedale House is a separate legal title.

The proposed closure of Cauwood Day Centre is unrelated to and predates any proposal for Ryedale House. The site around Ashfield Care Home which closed in 2024 and Cauwood has been earmarked for extra care development for a number of years.

Based on the information available, there is no identified reason why the proposed closure of Cauwood would have any impact on the operation of the ambulance station. The two facilities do not share boundaries, and access to each part of the site is separate, meaning the ambulance station would remain unaffected by the proposal.

The Ashfield and Cauwood site is equivalent in size to other extra care schemes and reflects the size needed for a two-storey scheme and bungalows.

The Ashfield site alone would be too small to deliver a viable scheme based on the size needed. We will also be mindful of the orchard and pond areas which further reduces the development space.

Access to Cauwood is also through the Ashfield site and as such would create issues should construction be taking place. Consideration would need to be given to the impact of noise and disruption at the site during any construction.

Ashfield is not a listed building.

Subject to approval, a procurement for extra care housing would only be launched once a decision has been made about the future of the Cauwood Service.

Yes, we will consider the potential to develop a day service within the new extra care housing scheme, however this will be subject to viability and procurement.

The latest property condition report identified that the following areas of work are required to maintain safe standards at the service over the next two years.

In addition to the above, the outdoor space at the service requires significant work to enable full access to the space and bring back into full use. The space is unlevel in many areas and is not fully secure meaning it is unsafe. This space would require additional investment on top of that identified above.

The above costs exclude utilities costs. Separate utility information for Cauwood is not held for previous years due to joint meters and services with adjoining properties.

These will be consistent with previous years’ costs in the answer above, plus inflation.

There is no recruitment freeze in place at the service.

As part of any closure and staff consultation process, in line with Human Resources and legal processes and advice, we would seek to retain as many of the staff teams as possible within Care Provider Services and minimise redundancies through transfer to other local services.

Clear communication and sensitive consultation with the Cauwood Day Service staff team would be undertaken, supported and led by Human Resources, if recommendations are approved.

The following services operate in Malton and Pickering:

• Acorn is based on a farm in Malton with people completing farm-based activities such as gardening, animal care and woodwork. The service can provide personal care to people who need it. It is predominantly a daytime opportunities service with the aim to improve attendees’ independence skills
• The Croft (Camphill Village Trust) is just outside Malton. The service offers a range of opportunities including horticulture, woodwork, animal care, creative arts and cookery. The service can support people with low, intermediate and high needs and are registered to deliver personal care (and also provide supported living)
• Ryedale Special Families is another learning disability day service, previously operating in Malton however more recently moved to a new purpose-built facility in Pickering. The service supports young people (usually up to 25 years) with complex care needs. It can offer two-to-one support if needed and offers personal care including some nursing care interventions. They provide a range of personalised activities including cooking, physical activities and travel training. The new base in Pickering enhances their offer with access to sensory rooms and horticulture activities in addition to the activities above

Other community-based support services in the surrounding areas of Malton include:

• Brunswick Nurseries in Bishopthorpe
• Omega Oak Barn in Beadlam – primarily for older people, linked to a care home
• St. Cecilia’s Day Care Services in Pickering – primarily for older people
• Dementia Forward also provides a range of Hub Clubs and activities locally

For some people it might be appropriate to consider a wider area including Scarborough and the areas from which existing attendees of Cauwood travel from. There are further services available in these areas including, but not limited to, Mencap, Creative Daycare and Basics Plus who deliver a wide range of services for people with this level of need.

None of the above organisations have formal waiting lists for their services.

There is available capacity within all of our in-house, building-based day services. The nearest of which is at Castle House in Scarborough which supports people with a range of complex needs.

Other services we provide directly are:

• Harrogate Day Services, Oak Beck, Bilton
• Valley Road Day Service, Northallerton
• Castle House Day Centre, Scarborough
• Kingfisher Place, Selby
• Craven Day Services, Jubilee Lodge and Steeping Stones, Skipton

A direct payment is when we give someone's personal budget straight to them, or their representative, so that they can decide how this is spent in arranging their care and support.

An individual service fund is where someone’s personal budget is held and managed by a care provider on their behalf.

Both direct payments and individual service funds can be used to attend day services or to employ someone to support a person to attend activities or venues which they are interested in. It offers a greater level of flexibility.

There have been only two new people accessing the service over the past five years. Other people prefer to access alternative provision where they are supported and enabled to access a range of other services and activities in the community.

The Changing Place accessible toilet has minimal use, currently only an average of once or twice a week. It has been reported that there was no usage in four weeks before the launch of this consultation.

If a decision was made to close the Cauwood service, we would explore how we can maintain provision of a Changing Place in Malton.

We recognise that community integration means different things to different people. We work with people and their families to understand what is important to them and identify how best to meet their needs. To make sure people with the greatest needs in deeply rural areas can be part of their wider community, support needs to be flexible and shaped around the person. This can require thinking differently about how services are delivered through working closely with local groups and services to create opportunities to connect.

Our ambition is to have inclusive communities rather than specialist, isolated provision. We aim to develop and support services with local bases that actively support people to access and participate in their communities, increasing personalisation and choice.

By listening to what matters to people and their carers, support can be tailored to help people stay involved in community life, even where distances and isolation are a challenge.