Southampton: Plans to close Holcroft House 'devastating'

Southampton City Council is planning to close Holcroft House in Thornhill due to "extensive" works needed to renovate the building.

The 34-bedroom residential care home is the only council-owned facility in the city after Glen Lee in Bitterne closed permanently in 2019. 

It provides short and long-term care for adults living with dementia. 

Holcroft House in Thorhill (Image: Newsquest)

Ruth Goldsworthy, whose 85-year-old father Eric Dalley is a resident at Holcroft House, said plans to close the home are "devastating." 

She said: "My dad has been a Holcroft resident since 2020. 

"He has prostate cancer and dementia, and he also got a hip replacement a few years ago. 

"When he was staying with me, I just couldn't provide the 24-hour care that he began to need.

"Now that my dad is at the care home, he is looked after so well by the staff members. 

"All the residents have such a lovely life in there." 

Ruth with her dad Eric (Image: Ruth)

Ruth added: "The staff members organise activities for residents. They do stuff for Valentine's Day, and they have pub quizzes regardless of whether or not they can participate. 

"I can't tell you how gutting it will be to move our loved ones when you know that they're coming to the end of their life." 

The council says that while the building is safe in the short term, a fire safety assessment has identified "a number of issues" which would take 18 months to fix.

Residents would need to be relocated for the duration of the works which may present "as a significant challenge".

Care home resident, Joan Moss, is one of the people who was forced to move to Holcroft House after Glen Lee was closed.

Her daughter, who asked not to be named, said: "My mum has already gone through one closure. 

"When the council shut Glen Lee, they promised us they would keep this one open, and now they're doing the same thing again.

"It's also heartbreaking because when she moved last time, the council moved her, and a lot of the staff went to Holcroft with her so the staff knew my mum and she knew them. 

"But this time, if the council closes their last care home, my mum will be going off somewhere where she doesn't know anybody and this breaks my heart." 

Glen Lee in Bitterne is permanently closed (Image: Newsquest)

Joan has been living in Holcroft since 2020. She has dementia and struggles to talk or feed herself. 

Her daughter added: "She doesn't recognise me. She recognises the carers more because she sees them every day.

"I know that my mum is very well looked after by the Holcroft staff. They look after her with dignity.

"She's always clean, she's always well-fed, and she's always smiling so to me, that says everything.

"I just think she will go downhill rapidly if she gets moved now to somewhere where she doesn't know anyone." 

Councillor Lorna Fielker, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Adults, Housing and Health (Image: SCC)

Deputy leader of Southampton City Council, Cllr Lorna Fielker, said: "The council has a legal duty to provide appropriate levels of care for elderly and vulnerable adults in Southampton.

"Many of the residents in Holcroft House require specialist dementia care and while our staff do an amazing job providing that, the building itself needs extensive renovation to ensure it can provide suitable and safe accommodation.

"As the required works would be ongoing for around 80 weeks and would be highly disruptive to residents’ lives, we are consulting the residents, their advocates, their carers, our staff and the public on the future of care provision at the home.

"Myself and the Executive Director for Wellbeing and Housing have met initially with families of residents and intend to continue to meet with them throughout the consultation process as we are hoping to hear the voices of all those affected.

"The wellbeing of the residents will be the overriding factor in any decision that is made."