Construction of EachStep Blackburn officially begins

Community Integrated Care was proud to officially launch the construction of EachStep Blackburn today, a state-of-the-art dementia care home that will open in summer 2016, in partnership with representatives of Blackburn with Darwen Council.

The cutting-edge £4.8m service 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. It will be built on the site of the former Royal Infirmary in Blackburn and is fully funded by the charity. 

At this service, we will provide our unique ‘EachStep’ brand of dementia care, a model that sees it deliver a holistic range of specialist support to help people who live with dementia through every stage of their journey with the condition. 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.

Today’s event saw Neil Matthewman, Chief Executive of Community Integrated Care, cut ground at the home to ceremonially declare construction started, alongside Blackburn with Darwen Council Leader, Cllr Mohammed Khan and Cllr Mustafa Desai, Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care. They were joined by Sally McIvor, Executive Director of People at Blackburn with Darwen Council and Steve Tingle, Director of Commissioning and Adult Social Care at Blackburn Council, who helped to commission the pioneering service. The group were given a tour of the site by Christine Cooper, Managing Director of LNT Construction, who have designed and will be constructing the specialist care home.

This development comes as part of a strategic aim by Blackburn with Darwen Council to modernise and 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 avoid unnecessary admissions into hospital. It will create at least 100 jobs in the local community, as well as create opportunities for local community and volunteering groups.

This is the second EachStep dementia service our charity has developed – the first, EachStep Blackley, opened in Manchester in 2012 and has been nationally recognised as being a centre of excellence for dementia care, winning prestigious accolades at the likes of the National Care Awards and the National Dementia Awards.

Neil Matthewman, Chief Executive of Community Integrated Care, says: “It was a great honour to officially launch construction of EachStep Blackburn, alongside our partners from Blackburn with Darwen Council. This exciting new 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 living with dementia, and their loved ones, a greater quality of life and the support that they need.”

He continues: “I believe that this development will make a fantastic long-term contribution to the local community, not only by creating many new jobs and offering the highest standards of dementia care, but also by benefiting local community groups too. Both Community Integrated Care and Blackburn with Darwen Council share a vision for this service really making a difference to the lives of local people, and we are delighted to take this important first step with construction today.”

Councillor Mohammed Khan, Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “It is great to see things are progressing well. I am very pleased to see such investment being brought into the borough and I am also very pleased about the number of jobs this development could potentially create. I am also pleased it will continue to the regeneration of this area of Blackburn.”

Councillor Mustafa Desai, Executive Member for Health and Adult Social Care, said: “I am delighted to see the progress of this important development. This is exactly the type of facility we need in this borough. Our older people deserve the highest quality services and when built, this care home will offer exactly that.”

View our gallery of photos from the official construction launch!