STAFF at Glenside residential home will have a chance to meet with the Minister for Social Care today (Friday).
 
The meeting follows Chris Robertshaw's announcement in the House of Keys on Tuesday that the government run facility will be closed by 2014.
 
On Tuesday senior officers from the Department of Social Care visited the 64 staff at Glenside to advise them of the closure.
 
According to the department the closure is part of an overall rebalancing programme which will see government put more emphasis on helping the elderly stay in their own homes instead of going into residential care.

Speaking earlier this week Mr Robertshaw said: "Glenside is effectively now, very much, an aging facility. It no longer complies, nor can we make it easily comply, with the standard that we aspire to for our residents in the future."

Mr Robertshaw said it was "too early to say" if the staff at Glenside could be redeployed within the Department of Social Care.

He said: "We have to look at each individual case over the next two and a half years and discuss with them what their personal hopes and aspirations are and how we might be able to meet them.

"We will be engaging with the unions, with the staff and the department itself to look at each individual's circumstances and take it from there.

"It isn't a one size fits all situation. Can we guarantee that everybody at the end of this will have a job? No of course we can't do that."  
 
Mr Robertshaw added that he will also meet with the relatives of the residents of Glenside in the coming weeks.
 
Invitation letters advising relatives of the details of these meetings will be sent out today and on Monday (February 13).
 
Also see: Glenside residential home in Douglas to close