Council will contract private companies to clean and declutter homes of vulnerable people in hospital

Peterborough City Council (PCC) has named the five companies it will contract to clean and declutter vulnerable people’s houses before they’re discharged from hospital.

Mr Bright, Hygenic Solutions, aAFD Services, Spotless Cleaning Services and Foster Property Management will form a framework of specialist contractors which will help Peterborough residents “live independently as far as possible in an accessible, safe and warm home environment”, the council says.

The companies will provide deep cleaning and decluttering services and will also be expected to take a “non-judgmental and empathetic approach” to residents who might display “challenging behaviours and chaotic lifestyles” such as “entrenched hoarding behaviours”.

PCC currently provides these services through its own Care & Repair Home Improvement Agency, but says that awarding contracts to the five companies in future will “speed up delivery”.

The change follows a review of the arrangement undertaken last year “due to rapidly changing market and economic conditions following the pandemic and Brexit, compounded further by a decreased number of contractors actively participating in the existing framework”.

PCC says that the service is important as it can help ease pressure on hospitals as well as its own health and social care services.

“Often residents who are in hospital cannot return home when they are medically fit due to the condition and/or cleanliness of their home,” a council report says.

“This leads to a delayed discharge from hospital or use of reablement flats or interim care beds for elongated periods of time.”

This could mean “bed blocking”, it continues, or “expensive moves into interim care settings”.

Failure to provide these services could, on the other hand, result in “complaints, challenges, Ombudsman involvement and legal proceedings” involving the council as unclean or hoarded properties bring fire risks as well as risks of falls, falling objects, entrapment and worsening respiratory conditions.

Delayed discharge from hospital, meanwhile, can result in “increased anxiety and a deterioration in physical/mental health”, the report says.

The new framework will be funded by PCC’s discretionary disabled facility grant, which is itself funded by the Better Care Fund.

This fund's contributors are NHS England, the Local Government Association and two Government departments: the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

PCC says that the value of the framework will be £400,000 between May 2023 and December 2025 plus £150,000 per year-long extension period.

Under current plans, there is an option to extend for a further two years meaning the framework is worth up to £700,000 overall.

The plans needs the sign off of Cllr John Howard (Conservatives), cabinet member for adult social care and public health, and Cllr Marco Cereste (Conservatives), cabinet member for housing before they can be fully adoped.

Their deadline for this is 30 April with the new framework planned to come into force on 1 May.