No conversation, ever, about care home being used for asylum seekers
PLUS: SEND provision improvement welcomed by Reform and opposition at County Hall
Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.
Misinformation was rife across the country in the build-up to the local elections in May and one of our key missions is to help find it.
It’s important here to recognise that all misinformation is not shared deliberately. Quite often, people see something that they believe to be concerning and to their best knowledge it is true, but it turns out not to be.
Somewhere in that is, often, someone acting is bad faith but the actual source can be challenging to identify and not everybody is sharing from a place of negativity.
Which brings us to Finney House, a care home in Preston that was at the centre of a row in the build to the elections when ‘unconfirmed reports’ emerged stating that it was to house asylum seekers.
If you pulled at that thread enough, which I did in April and have done again for today’s edition, it becomes clear that there’s nothing at all to suggest that it was going to happen. Nothing, apart from the Reform UK candidate-now-councillor sharing the ‘unconfirmed reports’. He has declined to share where the information came from.
But separately, to Reform UK’s credit, they have moved quickly to act on recommendations made by a damning Ofsted report in February and we are able to provide an update on that too.
Site to be reopened as care home, not house asylum seekers, after claims ‘straight from Reform playbook’
By Luke Beardsworth
Finney House will not be used as accommodation for asylum seekers - and there has never been a conversation about it happening.
That is the verdict from the owners of the building who intend to reopen the site as a care home when the Lancashire Teaching Hospitals lease expires.
The site, on Flintoff Way in Preston, had been used to support Royal Preston Hospital but was confirmed for closure in March this year. The scheme was hailed a success but costs meant that it couldn’t continue.
The building is owned by L&M Healthcare who have now told The Lancashire Lead that they intend to reopen the building as a care home.
A spokesperson said: “We can confirm that on completion of the lease period with Lancashire Hospitals Trust, L&M Healthcare will apply for registration with the CQC for the purpose of re-opening the care home facility.”
The suggestion that the building might be used to house asylum seekers was first made by Luke Parker, at that time a Reform UK candidate for Preston East in the Lancashire County Council elections, in April.
He said at that time that he was sharing ‘unconfirmed reports’ the closing facility would be used to house asylum seekers and that it raised serious questions. When Lancashire Teaching Hospitals described his report as ‘unfounded and misleading’, he responded by saying that he was raising awareness and promoting transparency.
But now The Lancashire Lead has been told by L&M Healthcare that there has ‘never been any conversation whatsoever’ about housing asylum seekers at Finney House.
Cllr Luke Parker, now representing Preston East at Lancashire County Council, did not respond when asked if he would like to share, for transparency, where he had received his initial tip-off about asylum seekers at the hotel.
Reform UK said that Cllr Parker did not wish to comment but that he was aware of the plans for the site. Despite that, he had neither corrected the record nor removed the post.
Opponents say that the claim was intended to ‘stir up outrage’ in the build-up to the election.
Cllr John Potter, leader of the Liberal Democrats at Lancashire County Council, told The Lancashire Lead: “This is straight out of the Reform playbook: make something up, lie to everyone about it, stir up some outrage then never apologise or admit you were wrong.
“Some of the Reform councillors and candidates need to take off the tin foil hats, stop reading conspiracy theories and actually concentrate on trying to help the communities they are supposed to represent.”
L&M Healthcare's previous management of Finney House was troubled.
An inspection in August 2021 by the CQC found that the service was inadequate even when the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic were taken into account. There were breaches in relation to keeping people safe from preventable harm and the care home was placed into special measures.
Those special measures were lifted after an inspection in June 2022 when its rating was upgraded to ‘requires improvement’ and the CQC found that improvements had been made, although there were still some areas of concerns.
Recommended reading this week
🏠 Plans to turn the former Citizens Advice Bureau in Lancaster city centre into flats for homeless people have been put forward to the city council. The site has been empty for three years - but could be put back into important use here.
⚽ We’ve written about what’s happening at Morecambe FC - with the 105-year-old institution at risk of collapse. The Guardian spoke with lifelong fans about what it would mean for them - and the football pyramid in general.
🌲 A historic venue is preparing to reopen its doors to the public thanks to the efforts of volunteers and new owners. Waddow Hall is nestled in acres of scenic countryside and welcomed generations of families, youth groups, and schools before it was closed in December 2023. Full story from the Lancashire Telegraph.
Steps taken to alleviate pressure on SEND provision in Lancashire
By Paul Faulkner
Extra capacity has been created to help clear the backlog in the system for determining the support that should be provided to Lancashire children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
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