When the in-patient beds at the Ruth Lancaster James Cottage Hospital closed in 2017–18, the community of Alston Moor accepted the loss on the understanding that step-down, intermediate-care beds at Grisedale Croft would form part of the replacement. Records newly released by North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) confirm that this is what was set up: the disclosure includes the Trust's own operational protocol for using Grisedale Croft as NHS-funded step-up and step-down beds, with written admission criteria, and the Trust states that those arrangements "remain in place".
The same responses, however, show that the beds were never formally commissioned. When the Working Group asked which body held the records of how the beds were funded and how patients were referred, North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (NENC ICB) said it held none and directed the request to the Trust. The Trust replied that it had "no involvement with the commissioning of these beds" and directed the question back to the Board. Each NHS body has now, in writing, pointed to the other — and neither holds the record. The Trust also confirmed that Grisedale Croft "was not included within the Trust's formal list of commissioned Pathway 2 bedded settings".
The hospital discharge records tell the same story. In each year from 2021/22 to 2025/26, no Alston Moor patient was discharged from the Cumberland Infirmary to a local rehabilitation bed. The Trust further confirmed that it has had no correspondence with Westmorland and Furness Council or Cumberland Council, and no internal discussion of its own, about Grisedale Croft or step-down provision on Alston Moor since January 2025.
The Working Group says these findings go to the heart of the case for closure. Westmorland and Furness Council's consultation presents Grisedale Croft's low occupancy as evidence that the home is no longer needed. In the Working Group's view, the records show the opposite: the home is under-used because the NHS support and referral pathway promised in 2017–18 was never put in place, not because the need on Alston Moor has gone. The figure now being used to justify closure is, on this evidence, the consequence of an arrangement that was never properly commissioned.
The Council's consultation on the future of Grisedale Croft runs until 5 August. The Working Group is encouraging everyone on Alston Moor to respond, and is gathering evidence from families who have been unable to obtain a local placement, or whose relatives were placed far from home. The full freedom of information responses are published on the campaign's FOI register at alstonmoorhealth.org/foi-register.
