A shake-up of services for the elderly could see the county council's residential care homes closing across Essex, it has emerged.

The radical proposal would free up funds which would then go into new services helping elderly people stay in their own homes.

The closure of the county's 25 old folk's homes is one of five options put forward in the consultation document called Age Matters, drawn up by the council and Essex's two health authorities.

for more on this story, access the article "Essex: Care homes' uncertain future" in the drop-down list at the bottom of this page County council leader Lord Hanningfield said: "We tend to get obsessed about a few elderly person's homes when we have got thousands of people who need better services in their own homes."

The consultation document predicts increasing demands of specialist help from social services or the health authorities due to the expanding elderly population in Essex.

The budget for elderly services is not expected to rise substantially, leaving the authorities looking at ways to "reconfigure existing services and increase cost-effectiveness".

The options for old people's homes are:

They could be kept in the county council's management as residential care homes, as they are now

They could be sold as a going concern to the private sector

The private sector could lease and manage the homes on behalf of the county council

An alternative use could be developed. For instance, using a home as a rehabilitation centre for elderly people discharged from hospital but still too frail to go home

The final option is closure.

Lord Hanningfield said: "People don't tend to want to go into homes.

By Charlie Mellor

Reporter's e-mail: charlie.mellor@notes.newsquest.co.uk

for more on this story, access the article "Essex: Care homes' uncertain future" in the drop-down list at the bottom of this page

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