PLANS to develop supported accommodation on the site of a residential home forced to close due to care failings have been welcomed.
Housing association Bron Afon bought the former Llanyravon Court Nursing Home, in June 2023 after the privately run Cwmbran home had closed that January having been stripped of its registration with Care Inspectorate Wales the previous November.
It now plans to develop the site as a “vibrant and well serviced community for older residents” according to Councillor David Daniels, Torfaen Borough Council’s cabinet member for social care, who was referring to an update issued by the housing association.
He told councillors: “Importantly they are looking at ways to build community support and provision into the designs of the site rather than relying on service providers.
“This would be a step change from the very traditional retirement home that currently forms much of their offer to older residents and in principle is something that I’d welcome.”
He said the residential care market is changing “because more and more people are opting to remain in their own homes for as long as they are able to do so”.
That, he said, has resulted in care homes focusing on nursing and elderly mentally infirm care and greater demand for domiciliary care at home and a “greater availability of homes that enable people to remain independent, socially connected and stay for as long as possible.”
The Labour councillor added: “At this stage, what’s been proposed by Bron Afon, is very much in line with those demands we are seeing and would present a very good use for the former care home.
“I would, of course, want to see much greater detail before recommending this is something we support, and whether is is something that would receive the support of Welsh Government and other funders, but at this stage what they are looking at is very much in line with what the market requires and what we would want as a council.”
Reform Party councillor for Llantarnan, David Thomas, had asked Cllr Daniels if he knew “what exactly” Bron Afon’s plans for the site are and referencing the closure of the Arthur Jenkins home in Blaenavon said: “Wouldn’t it be great given the fact we have lost yet another care home that Torfaen council and Bron afon could work together in a collaboration to reopen the care home?”
Llanyravon Court Nursing Home was sold for an undisclosed price, according to business property advisers Christie & Co that had been instructed to sell the home, with an asking price of £750,000, after joint liquidators were appointed in January 2023.