Services Update

Age UK Plymouth would like to inform our community of two important changes affecting our services:

Closure of our Help at Home service

We have made the difficult decision to close our Help at Home service, with the final day of operation being Wednesday 25 June 2025.

Unfortunately, the impact of increases in National Insurance and minimum wage, combined with other rising costs throughout our organisation, means we are no longer able to provide the service at a cost that is reasonable or competitive with other provision in the city. As a charity, our motivation is not to make a profit, it is to support older people in Plymouth. However, the charity is no longer in a financial position to sustain the losses that have been seen in this service over recent years.

All clients impacted by this change have been contacted directly, and help is available to provide individual support to assist them throughout this transition.

We would like to thank our entire Help at Home team for their care, commitment and hard work delivering this valued service. Their dedication to supporting older people in Plymouth has been greatly appreciated by both clients and the charity.

We remain committed to supporting older people in Plymouth through our wide range of services. For more information, please visit our services page or call 01752 256020.

Our Services

Closure of the Short Term Care Centre (STCC)

We would also like to inform you that NHS Devon has made the decision to close the Short Term Care Centre, based at the William and Patricia Venton Centre in Mount Gould.

The STCC was operated by Livewell South West, with support services provided by Age UK Plymouth, and was commissioned by NHS Devon with support from Plymouth City Council. It was created to help people recover from illness and avoid unnecessary hospital stays.

Throughout the time the service has been open, the STCC only accepted patients who were mobile enough to support a safe fire evacuation plan. Due to a decrease in demand from patients who meet this criteria, NHS Devon explored expanding the service to accept less mobile patients. However, it was concluded that the necessary building adaptions would not be financially viable.

All of the organisations involved will continue to work together to agree the future use of the STCC space, ensuring it best meets the needs of the local community in Plymouth. Age UK Plymouth services operating from the William and Patricia Venton Centre are unaffected and will continue to run as normal.

We would like to thank all of the Age UK Plymouth staff and volunteers who provided care and support to the STCC. The quality of services for patients has been extremely high, and their contributions have been truly excellent.