St Catherine’s Home
St Cuthberts Care, Newcastle
St Catherine’s Home (St Cuthbert Care’s one residential care home for older people) is an example of an effective social enterprise. It is a success both as a provider of high quality care for older people and also as a source of funds which enable the continuation and development of St Cuthberts Care’s other services.
The other services provided by St Cuthberts Care include day care facilities for older people and those with a learning disability (as well as residential care for the latter); children’s and family services such as residential care, support, adoption and fostering; an activity centre for children and others with disabilities; and services for young people leaving care. The financial stability of the care home allows these more vulnerable services to be sustained.
The following is an outline of the challenges faced in establishing the home and the financial plan implemented by the chief executive (Austin Donohoe) in order to make the home viable.
St Catherine’s Home has 45 residents, which Austin reckons is the absolute minimum. It charges a standard fee of approximately £450 a week. Nursing care gives adds approximately a further £100 a week to the cost of a bed. The local Authority rates for the home are £61 per week less than the standard charge. This amount is topped up by families, or the resident pays the entire amount themselves. For families who do not have the resource to make up the difference, St Cuthberts Care offers a hardship fund, to which they can apply.
Austin Donohoe sums up the reason for the home’s success, financial and otherwise, by saying:
"It’s easy enough. It’s a question of will – there are no obstacles that cannot be overcome but the quality of leadership is important. There is a clear unmet demand for a nursing home that offers a Catholic ethos."
However, the home does rely, he says, on having a good catchment area to draw on but even then only a third of residents come from outside of a five mile radius (which includes the city of Newcastle). Vacancies never last longer than two weeks because, according to Austin Donohoe, the home is Catholic and the care is of such high quality.
The project cost of St Catherine’s was £2 million. This was financed by a bank loan of £750,000 and a £500,000 loan at commercial rates from the diocese. The balance came from the charity. The home which it replaced was housed in an old convent, owned by the Dominicans, on other side of city. This was sold for development. Eighteen of the original residents came from the former home and it took two years to fill the remaining rooms.
Land on which the new St Catherine’s stands is owned by diocese, but leased to St Cuthberts Care under a 125 year lease, signed long before the nursing home was built The land was almost worthless when St Cuthberts Care agreed the lease as obtaining planning permission was thought problematic. The grant of planning increased the value of the site significantly.
Mass is held five days a week (including Sunday) and is restricted only by the number of priests available. There are two religious sisters who are residents (one of whom takes responsibility for a rosary group) and there are three nuns from overseas who are members of the 40 full-time staff. Eighty per cent of costs are staff costs. Boys from the adjacent Catholic boys’ school work as volunteers.
Austin Donohoe says:
"It is a question of valuing people – staff and residents – and investing in them in terms of things like training."
St Catherine’s, on the main road 15 minutes from city centre by bus, is a single storey home on the ground floor of the same building which houses the headquarters of St Cuthberts. It has four corridors set around a court yard, which has sitting area and a statue of the Virgin. In the warm weather this must be a pleasant and safe place to sit. It looks out on green fields and across to a former St Cuthberts property, a large, former priest’s house, which is now let to charities and the school. Rooms are pleasant and a good size for care homes. There are three dining rooms (one usually used by those in wheelchairs) with a rest room where smoking is allowed. There are a number of rooms with adjoining doors to allow for married couples. There is an air of intimacy created by the design and size of the home. The walls are brightly decorated, some being personalised with a map of the city surrounded by photographs of residents showing where they went to school, lived and worked.
St Cuthberts Care is now investigating the possibility of developing a care village, which would include a nursing home, sheltered accommodation, a church, and various community amenities.
Contact
Austin Donohoe, Chief Executive, St Cuthberts Care, St Cuthberts House, West Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE15 7PY Tel: 0191 2280111 www.stcuthbertscare.org.uk
