Hospice saved from further cuts in 'win-win' HQ sale

Fernleigh House in Nottingham has been home to Nottinghamshire Hospice since 1980

A hospice in Nottingham that was forced to make cuts amid mounting costs hopes to expand its services following the sale of its headquarters.

Fernleigh House in Woodborough Road - which has been the home of Nottinghamshire Hospice since its inception in 1980 - has been sold to Portland College, a specialist college for young people with disabilities.

The hospice announced redundancies last year and cut the hours of remaining staff.

Rachel Hucknall, the hospice's chief executive, said the sale - completed on Monday - would save the end-of-life service about £250,000 a year and had prevented further cuts.

Nottinghamshire Hospice is now leasing the upper floors of the building from the new owners.

With the money saved on the reduction in building maintenance and utility fees, the hospice said it aimed to expand services to double the number of patients it saw over the next five years.

Rachel Hucknall said moving the hospice staff into a small space was a positive move for them

"We looked after 2,000 people in Nottinghamshire last year and we now hope to start being able to look forward and increase that," Ms Hucknall said.

"It's been a perfect solution for both charities. It's a real win-win."

Nottinghamshire Hospice has never provided inpatient care but previously ran wellbeing and bereavement services in the building.

Those services are now delivered in community centres, libraries and even pubs, in an effort to bring them closer to users' homes, Ms Hucknall said.

The rest of its care services are home-based, which Ms Hucknall said there was a growing demand for.

'Great opportunity'

While the sale of Fernleigh House was "essential" for the hospice, its CEO said fundraising was still a "critical factor" in sustaining its future.

She said: "We have a referral for care - one referral every five hours.

"So we absolutely need to be able to grow our income from the charitable side of the organisation to continue to meet those levels of demand."

The hospice will continue to run from the first and second floors of Fernleigh House for management and administrative purposes, while the ground floor and a portion of the gardens will be used by Portland College.

Portland College, run by Portland Charity, provides specialist education and care to people with disabilities, through its main campus based in Mansfield and a city-based campus in Forest Road West.

Fernleigh House will be its second base in the city and offer an educational day service for up to 30 young people who have learning disabilities, the charity said.

Mark Dale the move presented an opportunity for both charities to expand

Portland College chief executive Mark Dale said the charity was in a "strong place financially" which allowed it to take on the project.

Mr Dale said the new campus would be a "safe, enclosed environment" for its service users who "couldn't tolerate the busy main campus".

"This will be a lovely, quiet, tranquil space," he added.

While cost of the sale was not disclosed, Mr Dale said the charity was investing about £1m in the move.

Of the challenges facing the charity sector, Mr Dale added: "It's a time of great opportunity and there is an opportunity to rationalise resources as Nottinghamshire Hospice have done - and that's given us a chance to expand and grow our core services."