Community Integrated Care announces EachStep Blackburn

Blackburn will be home to one of the UK’s most innovative care services, as part of an ambitious new partnership proposed by Community Integrated Care and Blackburn-with-Darwen Council.

This will see Community Integrated Care develop a brand new, state-of-the-art, £4.8 million care service that specialises in supporting people with dementia. It will be fully funded by our charity and built on the site of the former Royal Infirmary in Blackburn for summer 2016.

The Service

Example of EachStep Blackburn At this service, we will provide our unique ‘EachStep’ brand of care. EachStep sees our charity provide holistic range of specialist care and support from one cutting-edge service, to assist people who live with dementia through every stage of their journey with the condition.

A new three storey care service will be constructed on the site of the derelict hospital, which will be named ‘EachStep Blackburn’. It will include a 64 bedded care home that will provide respite support, residential care and nursing care. There are also plans for the service to deliver home care in the local community, assisting people to live independently in their own homes for longer.

As well as providing an extensive range of specialist facilities for the people it will support, the service will also offer several amenities for the local community to enjoy and utilise – including a café, landscaped gardens and meeting rooms.

This development comes as part of a strategic aim by Blackburn with Darwen Council to modernise and continue to improve local care services for older people. The service will support the goals of the local authority to keep people at home for longer and to avoid unnecessary admissions into hospital.

Local Investment

EachStep Blackburn - Propsed style of building

It is anticipated that this new care service will create over 100 permanent jobs in a range of care, management and administrative roles.The proposed development of the service will be overseen by LNT Construction, a company that specialises in the design and build of elderly care homes. Their proposals aim to regenerate the site of the former Royal Infirmary, which has been derelict since 2007.

All parties involved in the project are keen to celebrate and remember the heritage of the Royal Infirmary site. We plan to identify some of the important architectural features of the Royal Infirmary building and to retain these, ideally as a public art piece, which will be displayed on nearby land that is being donated by Blackburn-with-Darwen Council.

Exciting Proposals

Neil Matthewman, Chief Executive of Community Integrated Care, says: “Our charity is committed to enhancing the lives of people with care needs and making a positive to contribution to local communities, and these aims are at the core of these proposals.”

He continues: “The proposed EachStep service will offer the very highest standards of dementia support, delivered by highly trained, caring staff in exceptional facilities. In doing so, we will give people in Blackburn, and their loved ones, the comfort and stability that they need. But moreover, we intend for this service to benefit the Blackburn community at-large, enhancing the local environment and bringing many new opportunities for local people.”

Blackburn with Darwen Council

Councillor Mohammed Khan, Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care, says: “Blackburn Council is delighted that Community Integrated Care, as a not-for-profit organisation, is keen to work in partnership with us to develop a new innovative model of care for our older people. This is an exciting step for Blackburn-with-Darwen and we will watch closely as the project progresses.

He continues, “Although we are only at an early stage, we are confident that this is exactly what we need in the borough. We’re working closely with Community Integrated Care, so that the new EachStep service will become an integral part of the local community. Not only will it deliver great care and support, it will also offer local jobs for the people who live here and enable us to continue with the vital regeneration we need. We like to see this as the first of many exciting new developments and are looking forward to welcoming more.”

Arshid Mahmood, Executive Member for Neighbourhood, Housing and Customer Services, says: “We know that there are increasing numbers of older people who will need good quality housing and care. As such, I am really excited about the plans being published today – EachStep is exactly the kind of service we need in Blackburn.

He adds, “It has yet to go through the planning process but, from what I have seen of the plans already, it has the potential to be a superb development.”

Find Out More

Blackburn-with-Darwen Council, LNT Group and Community Integrated Care will be hosting open consultation meetings at the Ivy Street Community Centre, between 3.30pm and 6.30pm on 19th March. Members of the public are welcome to drop in at any time to speak to the groups. Formal presentations will be delivered at the events at 4pm and 5.30pm.