Kirklees council pushes through privatisation of dementia homes

On 17 March 2026, the staff at Castle Grange and Claremont House were formally told the specialist dementia care homes they work in are being transferred to a private provider. Mulberry Care Homes already runs a care home in Kirklees. However, the Care Quality Commission has assessed it as ‘requires improvement’.

Despite this rating Kirklees council is seeking to cut its losses and sell the home. This is leaving residents and their families to pick up the pieces. And, as they await the next steps, they’ve had no formal information from the council.

The ‘Save our Kirklees Dementia Homes from Privatisation’ group has tirelessly campaigned against this sell off. Just as it also fought to prevent Kirklees council from closing them. It is only thanks to this campaign that the homes didn’t close two years ago. But this council was not impressed or deterred from pressing ahead to offload them to the private sector.

The campaign includes close relatives of residents at both homes. And it has fought for the last two-and-a-half years to keep these excellent and caring homes in the public sector. Campaigners have received overwhelming support from the public and local community.

Labour banned questions on dementia homes

The campaigners have taken questions and petitions to the council to press their case. For their
troubles, they feel they have been patronised, ignored and finally silenced by an uncaring council. Six months ago, the ruling Labour group banned ALL councillors from asking any questions on the topic at council meetings.

Campaigners were also prevented from addressing the council and had to resort to standing outside town hall meetings lobbying individual councillors. Left with no alternative, they took their case to the High Court in Leeds in September 2025.

Regrettably the judge ruled in the council’s favour and the campaign appealed to the Court of
Appeal, where they tragically lost again. The rulings were on legal technicalities, not on the morality of selling off these dementia homes from under the residents to a failing private provider. The legal route was the last resort for the campaign and the council has acted with indecent haste
to tell staff they will now be transferring over to a new employer on worse terms and conditions!

Understandably staff, residents and families are devastated. Evidence shows that the private
sector provides worse standards of care compared to the public sector. The council is aware of
this but has chosen to fall back on erroneous figures to try and prove it is too expensive.

The campaign has consistently disputed these figures and produced a detailed dossier to prove its case. The campaign is now assessing its options and will monitor very carefully the new owners and the care they offer.

A spokesperson for ‘Save our Kirklees Dementia Homes from Privatisation’ said:

We all went to Leeds in September for the High Court hearing, and many of us also attended the Appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on 5 March. We are gutted we lost the case but we have fought all the way and continue to believe very strongly the council is making a huge mistake.

We would like to thank the staff, the community, those councillors who have believed in us and our legal team at Irwin Mitchell for all their support. We are naturally down but not unbowed. We owe it to everyone to ensure this new provider is kept on their toes and that the council fulfils its duty to monitor standards.

For those voting in the elections on 7 May, please ask your candidates where they stand on privatisation of public services and vote accordingly.

Featured image via the Canary