'Heads of Terms' have now been agreed with a potential buyer of a popular Southport care home, Connell Court in Birkdale.

A Methodist Care Home PR officer told QLocal Southport yesterday that the sale is progressing well adding: "We hope to let residents, relatives and colleagues know who the new owners are in the next few months."

Original MHA statement from May:

'Like any responsible organisation, MHA needs to make sure it is on the right track to be able to deliver on its mission. For us, this is about ensuring that we enable older people to live later life well. We also have a responsibility to the charity to make sure our finances are healthy and that we are in the best possible shape to develop our services for the future.

Back in 2019, we began a review looking at the long-term sustainability of all our services. This was inevitably paused during the pandemic but has now been completed. The result is that, working with our Leadership Team, our Board of Trustees has had to make a number of difficult decisions.

These are not decisions we have taken easily. They have had to be made so that MHA continues to be a healthy and vibrant charity, providing quality care and support, now and into the future.

Care homes: The first of these decisions is to withdraw from 10 of our 88 care homes. Two of these are owned by local authorities, and we are in talks with them to explore whether they can take on these particular homes. The remaining eight are now being put up for sale.

The 10 care homes are:

• Allesley Hall in Coventry
• Avonleigh Gardens in Oldham
• Cedar Lawn in Stratford upon Avon
• Connell Court in Southport
• Engelberg in Wolverhampton
• Greenways in Bognor Regis
• Hafan y Waun in Aberystwyth
• Harwood Court in Cramlington
• Herondale/Kingfisher in Birmingham
• Queenswood in Beeston, Nottingham.

We have been speaking with specialists in the care market and are confident that buyers will soon be found for these homes.

When a buyer is found, the new owner will take responsibility for the home, including residents and colleagues. If, however, in the unfortunate situation that a buyer can't be secured, I can’t rule out the possibility of some closures. It is anticipated that, where possible, homes will start to transfer to new owners by early 2024.

Affected staff at these homes will be given the opportunity to transfer to the new provider under the formal legal process known as TUPE regulations.

If we find ourselves having to close any care homes, we will support residents and their families to find new homes and affected staff to find new roles inside MHA, if there are any suitable opportunities and people want to stay with us or help them to find a new job elsewhere.

Money raised from the sale of the care homes will be used to invest in the fabric of our remaining homes and schemes and in new services for the benefit of our residents.

As it has always done, MHA will continue to review and assess our homes and schemes to ensure they meet and adapt to people’s changing needs, ensure financial sustainability, and remain valuing places to live.