EDEN District Council leaders have raised serious concerns over possible plans which they believe are being prepared by the North Cumbria Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Trust to provide alternative crisis accommodation in local Housing Association Schemes.

The council leaders fear that the latest proposals may have an unacceptable impact on the local housing situation, they have concerns about the level of care and support which would come from these properties and they cannot understand why the NHS Trust has sought to exclude them from discussions.

The council is aware of the strategy which has been adopted as part of the Service Modernisation Agenda by the NHS Trust. This strategy was adopted following extensive consultation last year and it would see the Acute Inpatient Unit within Penrith Hospital (the Beacon Unit) close and be replaced as part of a wider plan, with crisis beds in the community. This plan, while being adopted, remains unpopular locally. It is understood that although these plans are to be implemented over the next three years the NHS Trust is eager to see them enacted sooner rather than later.

The council considers this situation to be unsatisfactory on a number of levels. The council seeks to work in partnership with the trust and, as such, to be fully consulted on any changes to service provision, especially when those changes impact so strongly on the communities of Eden. In addition, the council anticipates a number of problems around the model of care proposed by the trust. Placing patients who are in need of crisis beds in housing schemes designed for people with much lower support needs will be disastrous both for the other residents of the affected schemes and the community at large.