Boarded Up Care Home - Devon

[UE-OMJ]

Well how bizarre, we're all on the lookout for boarded up buildings and it turns out the place I work for has one!

I work for the IT Department (well, I am the IT Department) of a Care Provider, we have many branches dotted round the UK, and a few care homes thrown in.

But it seems we closed a care home down in Devon (in Bideford) a few years ago, it's sat there boarded up ever since. It's right on the coast, I'm amazed they couldnt have found something better to do with the place than just board it up! So sad! I could have used it as a holiday home, literally right opposite it is the beach!!!


So, as it's a bit too far for me to go and take a look... anyone down in that area fancy checking it out for me?



This is the place...

And 180 degrees round, this is the view...

What a waste, I cant believe this hasn't been turned into some sort of holiday accommodation or something

It's Tragic

 

[shakeybird]

This is the Sands Care Home in Instow. Planning permission was put in a couple of years ago to turn it into 12 apartments but I guess the developer must've ran out of money or came up against too many council/neighbour issues. It certainly is a big place, I think the sale price was about £1, 250, 000. It's probably not the easiest place to have a look around because you would be spotted straight away.

 

[mrtoby]

If only you had said last week......

 

[UEP-Wales]

If only you had said last week......

He said it on "14th May 12, 19:17"

 

[pazza23]

Is this place still for sale, I have wanted to buy this place for years

 

[HistoryBuff]

Any updates on this place?

 

[urban-dorset]

I looked online but couldn't see that it had been sold - not yet, anyway. Probably needs a recce.

 

[Foxylady]

What a shame it's been left. With the rooms already set up with their own ensuite and kitchens for catering it would make a perfect B&B. Too far away for me to have a look at, unfortunately.

 

[gemanianedwards]

What a shame it's been left. With the rooms already set up with their own ensuite and kitchens for catering it would make a perfect B&B. Too far away for me to have a look at, unfortunately.

Husband worked there for years, could probably still tell you the names of who lived in which room……

 

[night crawler]

He might even know why it closed

 

[gemanianedwards]

He might even know why it closed

Owner ran out of money, couldn’t afford to keep it open or upkeep the listed buildings, obviously my husband moved in late 2007 from the area but he loved that building - was just telling me about when the lift broke with a service user in it so he had to crawl into the attic to hand lower it down…..

 

[gemanianedwards]

Owner ran out of money, couldn’t afford to keep it open or upkeep the listed buildings, obviously my husband moved in late 2007 from the area but he loved that building - was just telling me about when the lift broke with a service user in it so he had to crawl into the attic to hand lower it down…..

Most recent planning 2022 for 15 flats using the original buildings plus extension and demolition work and a self contained unit in rear garden not sure how it would work but I can’t find any information of it being turned down so I think it went through

 

[Hayman]

Most recent planning 2022 for 15 flats using the original buildings plus extension and demolition work and a self contained unit in rear garden not sure how it would work but I can’t find any information of it being turned down so I think it went through

What goes around - it seems to have been built as a hotel, when seaside holidays began to be popular; helped by the arrival of the railway in the town. Then cheap overseas holidays - with guaranteed sunshine (!) - killed the UK family holiday business. What is killing the care home business?

 

[gemanianedwards]

What goes around - it seems to have been built as a hotel, when seaside holidays began to be popular; helped by the arrival of the railway in the town. Then cheap overseas holidays - with guaranteed sunshine (!) - killed the UK family holiday business. What is killing the care home business

What goes around - it seems to have been built as a hotel, when seaside holidays began to be popular; helped by the arrival of the railway in the town. Then cheap overseas holidays - with guaranteed sunshine (!) - killed the UK family holiday business. What is killing the care home business?

Owners can’t keep their staff, staff can’t live on the awful wages, plus new regulations mean that a listed building has to be cared for in a certain way and the regulations from care standards mean that the owner can’t afford to bring the homes up to standard, also the amount that homes are paid by the council are falling so with some service users the care home is making a loss, then homes having to pay 3 x what the normal carers get to bring in agency staff because they don’t have enough staff for minimum staffing levels…..so many things destroying the care industry atm - and yes I’m a carer….or was until I had to start caring for a family member full time

 

[Hayman]

Owners can’t keep their staff, staff can’t live on the awful wages, plus new regulations mean that a listed building has to be cared for in a certain way and the regulations from care standards mean that the owner can’t afford to bring the homes up to standard, also the amount that homes are paid by the council are falling so with some service users the care home is making a loss, then homes having to pay 3 x what the normal carers get to bring in agency staff because they don’t have enough staff for minimum staffing levels…..so many things destroying the care industry atm - and yes I’m a carer….or was until I had to start caring for a family member full time

I can certainly see how regulations about listed buildings would be counter to making practical use of
such properties. Having worked as an agency driver, my pay was about the same as if I had been 'on the books' of the firm I was driving for. But the agency had to make a profit to stay in business, and the firm would have paid a lot more than I received from the agency. As for what carers get paid, are people's expectations so much higher these days? Take the current train drivers and NHS strikes - where people already on reasonable wages keep demanding more. In a world driven by advertising, being satisfied with what one has is daily undermined - on the internet, on TV, everywhere. Want has replaced need.

 

[gemanianedwards]

I can certainly see how regulations about listed buildings would be counter to making practical use of
such properties. Having worked as an agency driver, my pay was about the same as if I had been 'on the books' of the firm I was driving for. But the agency had to make a profit to stay in business, and the firm would have paid a lot more than I received from the agency. As for what carers get paid, are people's expectations so much higher these days? Take the current train drivers and NHS strikes - where people already on reasonable wages keep demanding more. In a world driven by advertising, being satisfied with what one has is daily undermined - on the internet, on TV, everywhere. Want has replaced need.

Emergency cover for a care home to make it “legally staffed” can be 2x sometimes 3x what the “employed staff” get, there’s rarely a break for staff (eat with service users) £10.71 our local home offers staff but it’s nearly £12 an hour for McDonald’s…..less hours less responsibilities less restrictions and you get a free meal!

 

[Hayman]

Emergency cover for a care home to make it “legally staffed” can be 2x sometimes 3x what the “employed staff” get, there’s rarely a break for staff (eat with service users) £10.71 our local home offers staff but it’s nearly £12 an hour for McDonald’s…..less hours less responsibilities less restrictions and you get a free meal!

When I was an agency driver, I was paid perhaps 10-20 per cent more than on-the-books employees. And it was just for the hours I worked. No work, no pay. No sick leave, no paid holidays. But, the responsibilities were the same. What restrictions do you mean? Before I met her, my wife was a temping secretary in London - paid much more than on-the-books staff got. But the employers benefited by the flexibility of using temps only when needed. As a agency driver, I had the flexibility of stopping working for a certain employer if I did not like the way I was treated - and I used that choice more than once. It cut both ways.

 

[gemanianedwards]

Restrictions meaning have to do everything a certain way, can’t pick and choose at all, even if Doris hits you with her walking stick because you look like her old piano teacher you can’t just abandon her on the loo and hide in the staff Room, you obviously try to avoid the walking stick….in McDonalds you could ask someone else to serve, but when you are meant to have 11 staff and you only have 8 for 44 service users and 4 of those are 1:1 leaving the other 4 to toilet, feed, serve food, serve drinks, do meds (that’s 2 people one to dispense one to run meds) and write reports, food observations drink observations then bathe dry put to bed set the bed alarms (pads by side of bed incase Doris goes wandering) tbf McDonalds a lot easier than care and you need a lot less legal stuff (dbs, nvq or care certificate, CoSSH, care plans, moving and handling)

 

[Hayman]

Restrictions meaning have to do everything a certain way, can’t pick and choose at all, even if Doris hits you with her walking stick because you look like her old piano teacher you can’t just abandon her on the loo and hide in the staff Room, you obviously try to avoid the walking stick….in McDonalds you could ask someone else to serve, but when you are meant to have 11 staff and you only have 8 for 44 service users and 4 of those are 1:1 leaving the other 4 to toilet, feed, serve food, serve drinks, do meds (that’s 2 people one to dispense one to run meds) and write reports, food observations drink observations then bathe dry put to bed set the bed alarms (pads by side of bed incase Doris goes wandering) tbf McDonalds a lot easier than care and you need a lot less legal stuff (dbs, nvq or care certificate, CoSSH, care plans, moving and handling)

Thanks. After six years in the army, I knew what "doing things in a certain way" meant. Today - in civvy street - job after job job has become
'academia-ised' - possibly thanks to Balir's absurd idea that half of secondary school leavers are educationally and intellectual suited to university level three and four year courses, and that half the jobs in the country need degree-level applicants. Hence the claim that the person asking, "Do you want fries with that?" will quite likely have BA or BSc after his or her name. But not be able to change a washer on a tap in a kitchen.

The lack of people willing to work in care homes may be down to the way job expectations have changed in general. With large numbers of British people unemployed, it is eastern Europeans who are prepared to do many of the 'dirty jobs'. People living longer means more in care homes and for longer. Families caring for their old folk at home is no more the norm. One council is lacking funding to continue home visits and wants people to move into care homes. The idea that somehow every need can be met does not help. Perfection is seldom seen in this world.