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'Care home closure would destroy our community'

Eleanor Maslin & Anne-Marie Tasker
BBC News
BBC A woman with short blonde hair is smiling and sat in a chair outside with shrubbery and trees behind her. She is wearing a white and black stripey top and tinted glasses.BBC
Resident Jean said Ashley Court Residential Home is "very much home for all of us"

A woman who has lived in a care home for 26 years says her community would be "completely destroyed" if it was closed.

Jean, 66, lives at Ashley Court Residential Care Home in Lincoln, built for adults with physical disabilities, and is one of 15 residents living with uncertainty over the future of the facility.

Housing provider Amplius informed residents and family members that it would be ending its contract earlier this month.

It said it was doing "everything it could to find an alternative provider" so that residents would not have to be separated and moved elsewhere.

A man with short grey hair and a moustache in a blue shirt and jacket leaning next to a park bench. On the bench is a man smiling in a black and white shirt with a woman sat next to him with glasses and short blonde hair.
Stepdad Bob and mum Stephanie are worried for their son Stuart, who is the care home's longest resident

Jean, who caught an autoimmune disease in her mid 30s which left her in a wheelchair, moved into Ashley Court in 1999.

She said news of the contract ending "came out of the blue".

"The fear is we will all be moved to different places but with people we don't know.

"The community we've built up would be completely destroyed."

"Although the description is residential home, it's very much home for all of us who live there, not just somewhere to sleep," she said.

'A beautiful place'

Resident Stuart, 57, had a blood transfusion when he was a child which left him needing to be in care for the rest of his life.

He has been at Ashley Court since the age of 19, making him the longest resident of 38 years.

His mum, Stephanie, 84, said: "How can they just move him when he's lived there all that while? Everybody is so happy there, it's a beautiful place."

Resident Mark has lived at the care home for four years and said: "It's always been a family."

A group of eight people with two men at the back holding up a sign that reads 'Save Ashley Court'. One person at the front has a zimmer frame, another is in a wheelchair and another is on a mobility scooter.
Residents and family members fear the closure of the care home

Phil Hardy, chief operations officer for Amplius, said it had paused the 90-day notice given to LCC to end its contract at the care home after searching for another provider for "more than a year".

Mr Hardy said: "I can reassure residents and their families that we're doing everything we can to find an alternative provider that will take on the care contract so that residents can continue to live there.

"The most important thing is that the needs of the residents are fully assessed and met, and that we continue to carefully listen to and consider their views."

Martin Samuels, executive director of adult care and community wellbeing at LCC, said the council "continues to explore potential solutions to keep the home open," with support from the Lincolnshire Care Association.

He added: "We realise this is a difficult and stressful time for the residents and their families, and we will keep them informed as progress is made."

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