Apthorp Care Centre in Nurseryman’s Road, Brunswick Park was officially closed on 31st October due to maintenance works to upgrade fire safety systems. The Post understands that within six weeks of moving out four of the 26 former residents have died.

When asked to respond to this the council did not deny it but said it couldn’t comment on individual cases. Dawn Wakeling, executive director of adults and health for Barnet Council, said: “We cannot comment on individual cases but we express our condolences to the families and friends of the people who sadly passed away.”

Now, Barnet Unison and Barnet Alliance for Public Services are leading a campaign calling for a public inquest into the closure of the care home. They have started a petition using the website Action Aid which was signed by 225 people at the time of writing.

They hope that an inquest would answer their questions: “why [was Apthorp] closed? Why was it left to decline? Why can it not be saved? Why were clients and staff not centred in the process? Will it reopen and when and why was this all done so quickly?”

Some relatives of those in care agree that it was closed too quickly.

Moving her relative from Apthorp Care Centre – designed to give care to those with dementia, mental and physical health issues – was “a shock” said Susan (name changed). She had felt “kept in the dark” throughout the process and believed that she was “left to fend” for herself besides someone checking in with her once every two weeks when she was looking for a new home.

It had taken Susan’s relative time to adjust to Apthorp and, per- haps, because of this, he became “distressed” when he was told that he had to move again, something which Susan had little control over. She is not alone in this feeling of powerlessness.

Just outside of the Sainsbury’s in East Barnet Road, on a rainy day in late October, activists gathered to protest the care home’s closure. The closure has resulted in 84 redundancies for staff. They also fear it has been the catalyst for the four deaths.

Angie Hudson, a member of Barnet Alliance for Public Services, said that the deaths were correlative to a move that has taken the elderly away from their carers and their community.

“We know from research that if you move, frail, elderly, confused people quickly then they give up. You have to be very careful about how you move people like that. You have to give them time. You have to help them with that process. This was done in eight weeks. And, in fact, there were some people left in the care home with only a week to closure.

“It’s totally irresponsible and I think it’s actually negligent…let alone the fact that their key workers weren’t allowed to be part of their reassessments to choose the appropriate resource for them to move into.”

Leaving carers out of the assessment process was a reg flag for Barnet Alliance for Public Services who said this was key to making sure residents were placed in the appropriate setting for their needs.

Helen Davis, director of Barnet Unison, agrees that the move was not handled responsibly.

She said: “We are incredibly saddened by this news. We all know that moving home is one of the most stressful experiences any of us go through. For the elderly and frail the experience can have fatal consequences which is why there is ADASS guidance on how to achieve a care home closure. Sadly from what we could see happening, we do not believe this guidance was fully followed.

“The distress to workers … has been considerable. The distress to residents and their families appears to have been no less. We do not believe this was inevitable. We sincerely hope that the remaining 22 residents manage to thrive in spite of having been moved.”

Charli Thompson, one of the organisers of the protest, said this closure fits into a pattern where services are closed before being sold off to developers.

“It’s part of a long history of badly run services where the council uses public money basically, to do these deals, selling things off to property developers and then closing services we need.”

Charli cited her own experiences with Your Choice Barnet as one of the reasons why she has lost trust in a process where Barnet Council outsources their services to different companies. Some years ago, when her autistic sister was living in shared housing, the property was declared unfit for purpose and she was asked to move into supported living flats run by Your Choice Barnet.

“There was very little consultation and no choice in the matter. So she couldn’t be moved to another home with other people. She was essentially forced to live in a flat on her own, which she did not want to do. It’s very traumatising. Your Choice doesn’t give adequate answers and justification for the things that they do.”

Catalyst Housing owns the building which is rented out to the local authority and before 2019 was run by a charity, The Fremantle Trust. The building repairs are the responsibility of Barnet Group and the provision of care is now given by Your Choice Barnet, both arms of the local authority.

All these various different groups involved in the management process can be dizzying. John Dix, a local blogger, said that it seems like no one is working together. This lack of cohesion could result in mismanagement and bad practices. In 2019, the care home was rated inadequate in a damning Care Quality Commission (CQC) report which found rampant legionella and rust that made the bathrooms unfit for use. He suspects that no one took responsibility for structural issues, allowing the repairs to get out of hand despite the poor report in 2019.

“The closure could have been avoided” altogether if it would have been planned for, “but it seems like it was just allowed to get terrible. I get a distinct sense it was a great opportunity to close the building and end the contract.”

A spokesperson from The Fremantle Trust said:

“In 2018 we identified Legionella as part of our routine checks and took steps to treat it in the recommended way. The Care Home was handed over to Your Choice Barnet from The Fremantle Trust in July 2019.”

Much like Charli and Angie, John’s surprised that frail elderly people, many of whom are suffering from dementia, were moved out of their homes.

“From an outsider’s perspective, it seems wrong that someone can be moved out of their home because it suits a contract to do so. They haven’t taken into account people’s feelings.”

In other words, he worries that the rigid and impersonal process of fulfilling contractual obligations does not prioritise human relationships. This seems antithetical to the job of giving care, which is all about forging bonds between people. As soon as that trust is broken – a carer is made redundant – the very premise of the work itself is undermined.

John says the loss of jobs is a blow to Barnet, giving him even more reason to believe that different organisations are not communicating effectively. All of these carers have been made redundant in a moment where the NHS is desperate for more community-based carers who could alleviate the strain on in-house hospital services.

“Why has a local authority just made all of these carers redundant?” he asks. “Ultimately it’s all about money, they’re just checking boxes to make sure they meet their budget.”

Susan is a prime example of someone who now feels disregarded. The closure of the care home has marked the beginning of a new set of worries.

“The situation is not resolved, it’s ongoing”, she says. Now, her relative needs to settle into a new home. The process has been stressful for them both, making her feel even more alone in the midst of the turmoil of looking after her family.

Barnet Council assured Barnet Post that “Your Choice Barnet and Barnet Council have worked with residents of Apthorp Care Centre in Brunswick Park to support them to move to alternative care homes.

“The decision to vacate Apthorp Care Centre has been made on the basis of the wellbeing of residents. Recent inspections of the building identified the need for significant works to upgrade fire safety systems and meet contemporary standards.

The extent of work required would cause major disruption to the residents over a lengthy period of time.”

Dawn Wakeling, executive director of adults and health for Barnet Council, made a statement that stands in opposition to the idea that residents were forced to move.

She said: “every resident was given the option to stay at Apthorp… we consulted with residents and their families, and every resident was moved with their full consent. We worked with our residents’ GPs and medical end of life care professionals to ensure they moved safely into their new homes.”

Your Choice Barnet also addressed the concerns that staff would be left without work, saying that “support was offered”… to all 84 staff … “to find alternative employment through redeployment and assistance with job finding. An alternative location for the day centre provided from the same site, where a further nine staff are employed, was identified and there has been no disruption to the people or staff at the service.”

Julie Riley, group director of care and support for the Barnet Group, said:

“The decision was not taken lightly, and we appreciate the impact it has had on residents as well as staff. We have consulted one-to-one with employees and their representatives in trade unions and offered to support them through the next stages. We are a large employer and there have been many options across the organisation for redeployment into other roles.”

Catalyst Housing declined to comment.