A NEW £10 million social care and health centre in Rowley Regis which will help create up to 100 jobs and prevent bed blocking in local hospitals is set to be passed by councillors. 

Sandwell Council's planning committee will discuss plans for an 80-bed unit in Harvest Road, which will provide short-stay support for patients leaving acute care.

The centre will add to the authority’s success in dealing with bed-blocking which happens when otherwise-fit patients have no suitable home or place to live and are forced to stay in hospital.

The council, which is deemed the best performing in the West Midlands and the fourth best in the country for dealing with the problem, now wants to build the centre to increase the number of care places available in the borough.

In a report to members of Sandwell’s planning committee,  officers have recommended it be approved, saying: “The proposal meets this requirement as it is compatible with adjacent uses, is a suitable site, and would not adversely affect the quality and character of the local environment.

“It is also within proximity to several facilities, i.e. local supermarket, recreation ground, community church, community hospital and is on or adjacent to several bus routes.”

The centre is planned on the land of a former residential care home which was demolished in 2008 and has remained vacant since. 

It is expected to employ 75 full-time and 25 part-time staff, and 30 employees will be on site at any given time.

Cash for the unit was approved by the council last December when the then cabinet member for social care, Ann Shackleton, said: “This is a very ambitious scheme which will provide the best of accommodation for people in need in our community.”

Members of the planning committee will make a final decision at their meeting on July 3.