80 new Derbyshire jobs to be created with new care home development

Eighty new jobs will be created with the £7m building and development of a state of the art, purpose built, specialist 36 bed (all ensuite) dementia care unit at Evelyn Court on Heanor Road in Smalley.

Ashfields Care Ltd, owner of sister care home Ashfields Care Home, Heanor, bought what was formerly Kidsley Grange Nursing Home in 2022, which has now been demolished. The pilings are now in, and foundations are being laid for the holistic and sympathetic development scheduled to open in June 2025.

Managing Director, Conway Standing, purchased, what is now a 76 bed, Ashfields Care Home (Ashfields) in Heanor just under ten years ago. It provides nursing, residential, end of life and dementia care. It has been Winner of the Top 20 Awards for care homes four years running, is deemed “Outstanding” by the CQC (Care Quality Commission), and has a Dementia Inclusion Award nomination amongst many others.

Evelyn Court will cover 1,576 square metres, almost double the size of the former Kidsley Grange Nursing Home which covered 897 square metres.  It is being built to follow the curve of Heanor Road in keeping with the surrounding environment. The three-storey complex will appear two storeys from the road.

Residents in the existing dementia suite at Ashfields will be offered the opportunity to move to the new site, after which Ashfields will be developed to offer additional nursing beds. Ten beds will become a specialist palliative care unit. Like Ashfields, Evelyn Court will have a dedicated hair salon, restaurant, cafe bar, therapy treatment area and lounge rooms opening onto gardens, all with dedicated staff together with a number of seating and lounge rooms. 

Evelyn Court will have large LED screens as you enter reception and large screens in the café bar showing live feeds of locations around the world.
The residents will be allowed to wander freely within the home and carefully designed and managed external secure garden courtyard, including several mature trees. There will be thirteen car parking spaces.

Standing comments, “Extra wide corridors and circulation areas will allow patients to ‘roam’ in a safe environment. It has been proven that dementia patients benefit from being able to walk around ‘freely’ but safely and with supervision.”

Additional nursing home beds will help to meet increasing demand and a shortage in the area. Ashfields has a waiting list and is a major employer in the area. Standing says he credits developing and running his care home as if, “I am caring for my own relatives. Pet friendly, dogs and pets are allowed to live with owners and to visit”.

Evelyn Court is named after his late mother, Evelyn Standing.  Standing developed Ashfields as he could not find a nursing home he deemed fit for his 94 year old mother who suffered from vascular dementia.  The cafe bar is named after her and called Café de Evelyn.

Standing describes Ashfields as ‘extraordinarily accommodating’ basing his success, “On doing the best job possible, with a dedication to both residents and staff. I want to inspire and develop staff”. In fact, two girls are leaving the dementia suite to take degrees in nursing. A part time member of staff has recently achieved a master’s degree in finance & business administration."

The home has catered for relatives of well-known figures and relatives of medical professionals far and wide.

Staff are paid above average for the sector. Staffing levels are 20% above the recommended patient/staff ratio 1:5 for nursing care, 1:10 for residential care, and 1:8 for dementia care. Eighty per cent of staff have worked for Standing for over ten years. 

The home has torch lanterns either side of the entrance and tree lights, reflecting the attention to detail of the surroundings. Standing states, “It is more like stepping into an exclusive hotel than a nursing home, even down to a brass luggage bolero in the lobby”. 

Ashfields employs approximately 130 caring staff. With the opening of Evelyn Court it will take the number of staff employed to another 80, making it one of the largest employers in the East Midlands.