Background
In Spring 2024, the NHS confirmed that funding had been secured to progress plans for an Integrated Health and Social Care Facility on St Mary’s. The facility will provide a purpose-built care home with outside space and enable high-quality care to be delivered to residents through the integration of hospital and social care services and staff. You can find out more about this project on the NHS’ Isles of Scilly Integrated Health and Social Care webpage.
Park House
The expected completion date for the new care home is September 2025. Residents currently in Park House will be moved up to the new facility by the end of October 2025.
At the meeting of Full Council on 24 March 2025, Councillors approved the business case for the redevelopment of Park House into 4 self-contained flats and a 4-bed cluster flat. Redevelopment works will commence as soon as residents are able to move into the new care home.
Recent refurbishment works at Park House have ensured it remains a safe and comfortable care home until residents can move into the new facility. These works were undertaken with a potential change of use in mind, allowing much of this refurbishment to be retained. However, some elements will require further upgrades now that the decision has been made to redevelop the former care home into housing.
Details of the proposed housing scheme
The redevelopment of the Park House building will provide 4 long-term flats managed by the Council of the Isles of Scilly. These will be let to health and social care staff based on the Council’s Allocations Policy and a Local Lettings Plan and a 4-bed cluster flat managed by Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust for their staff. This option addresses the need for both short-term stays by healthcare staff and permanent accommodation for long-term staff.
The planning application for the Park House redevelopment is available on our planning webpages, and was approved at the meeting of Full Council on the 29 May 2025.
Wider impacts on housing and on-island recruitment
A lack of suitable accommodation contributes to one of the greatest challenges we face as a community: keeping the skills we need on the islands. We expect the new Integrated Health and Social Care Facility and the provision of accommodation within the vacated Park House building will make it easier to recruit and retain skilled staff on the islands and provide new opportunities for skills and career development.
The Council’s efforts to work with the NHS to facilitate the Integrated Health and Social Care Facility and to provide much-needed accommodation at Park House are underpinned by the Local Plan and the following objectives in the Corporate Plan 2022-2026:
Objective 1
Ensure a minimum of 30 new affordable homes are built to help support local need.
Objective 2
Update the housing allocation policy to ensure we are doing everything we can to better match the needs of tenants and improve options for those willing to move according to a change in their needs.