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Neither phasing work around residents nor closing the home is automatically the safer, faster, or cheaper choice. The right plan depends on whether the operator can maintain safe care, workable evacuation arrangements, sufficient staffing, and appropriate infection-prevention controls throughout every phase. If that cannot be demonstrated for the actual residents and building, temporary relocation or closure may be necessary.
There is no universal threshold for keeping a care home occupied during refurbishment, and official guidance does not establish which option costs less, takes less time, or produces better resident outcomes. The decision needs to be tested against the project’s scope, building, staffing, residents’ needs, and the arrangements available at any temporary destination.
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What determines whether residents can stay?
The starting question is not simply whether contractors can work in one part of a building while residents occupy another. The operator needs to establish whether care can remain safe and continuous as the building changes, including when routes, rooms, services, or safety arrangements are affected. A plan that works in one phase may not work in the next.
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- Residents’ dependency and individual needs: Consider the support each resident needs in an emergency and whether those needs can be met in the areas remaining in use.
- Staffing: Staff must be able to provide ordinary care and carry out the emergency arrangements for the residents present. Consider the staffing available at different times, including overnight.
- Layout and construction: The building’s arrangement and construction affect which evacuation strategies are feasible and whether work areas can be separated from occupied areas.
- The planned work: Identify effects on rooms, routes, services, and safety systems, rather than treating refurbishment as one undifferentiated activity.
Scottish Government fire guidance says an evacuation strategy depends principally on resident dependency, the staff available to assist, and the premises’ layout and construction. That is useful context for the decision, but it is guidance for Scotland—not a universal rule for every UK care home. The England residential-care fire guide also addresses evacuation strategies and management arrangements. The operator should use the guidance and requirements applicable to the home’s country and site.
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Occupied phasing is defensible only if the operator can show that the arrangements remain workable through the proposed phases. A construction boundary on a drawing is not, by itself, evidence that residents are protected from the effects of work or that staff can evacuate them safely.
How do phased renovation and temporary closure compare?
Phasing can preserve residents’ existing location and routines, but it requires safe care areas and services to remain available while work proceeds. Closure or relocation removes residents from the refurbishment site, but creates its own care-continuity, transfer, and accommodation needs. Neither option eliminates the need for planning or a site-specific safety assessment.
| Decision area | Phased work with residents present | Temporary closure or relocation |
|---|---|---|
| Care continuity | May preserve familiar routines and location if suitable care areas and services remain available throughout each phase. | Disrupts residence and routines; planning must address individual needs, continuity of care, and arrangements at the temporary destination. |
| Fire and evacuation | Review the fire-risk assessment as the premises change. Check that work activity, routes, compartments, staffing, and residents’ needs remain compatible with the evacuation strategy. | Can reduce residents’ exposure to the work areas, but the receiving location and transfer arrangements still need suitable care and safety arrangements. |
| Infection prevention | In England, providers must have regard to the applicable infection-prevention code when deciding how to meet regulations. Work-specific controls need to be developed for the project. | May avoid some exposure to on-site work, while transfers and temporary accommodation bring separate planning needs. |
| Staffing and operations | Staff must be able to deliver care and carry out emergency arrangements despite changes in room use, contractor access, and working conditions. | Requires operational and staffing arrangements for transfer and care at the temporary site. |
| Building and work scope | More plausible when work can be separated into safe zones without compromising essential care, access, or protection. This is a project-specific assessment, not a general rule. | More plausible when work cannot be safely separated from residents or essential services. This, too, requires a competent assessment of the actual site. |
| Cost and duration | No general cost or duration advantage is established by the official sources cited here. Compare the project’s construction and operating costs. | No general cost or duration advantage is established by those sources. Include transfer, temporary accommodation, staffing, and recommissioning in the project estimate. |
The comparison is qualitative because the cited official guidance does not provide comparative cost, schedule, or resident-outcome figures. A claim that one option is routinely cheaper, quicker, or better for residents needs project-specific evidence.
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When is occupied phasing a credible option?
Phasing is worth assessing when the operator can define how care will continue in each phase and demonstrate that residents can be protected as the work progresses. That does not mean the project is automatically suitable for occupied work; the assessment must reflect the actual people, building, and construction sequence.
Check whether the work can be separated from care
Map the proposed work against the areas residents and staff need to use. Identify affected rooms, routes, services, and safety systems, and then assess the arrangement phase by phase. Look beyond the immediate work area: a change elsewhere in the building could affect access, evacuation, or the services residents rely on. A competent building and safety assessment is needed to determine what separation is practicable on the specific site.
Test evacuation against the residents and staffing
Review the fire-risk assessment and the evacuation needs of the residents who will be present during each phase. Scottish Government guidance recommends individual assessment of evacuation needs and review as those needs change. It also explains that high-dependency residents may require progressive evacuation, with appropriate fire-safety measures and enough staff to carry it out. For such residents, the guidance observes that progressive evacuation may be the only realistic strategy because moving people can be difficult and take longer.
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Do not assume that an evacuation plan remains workable just because it was workable before the project. Consider whether proposed changes to routes, compartments, room use, staffing, or construction affect the strategy. England’s residential-care fire guide also describes progressive horizontal and delayed evacuation strategies and the need for suitable management arrangements.
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Moving residents can disrupt familiar routines and relationships. Scottish guidance notes that relocation from established locations may cause confusion and isolation. Those effects belong in the decision, alongside the risks of remaining during construction; they do not prove that residents should stay if safe arrangements cannot be maintained. Assess what a move would mean for each resident and what continuity of care and support can be arranged at the temporary destination.
When should closure or relocation be considered?
Temporary closure or relocation should be considered when the operator cannot demonstrate safe care and workable emergency arrangements for residents during the work. It may be the more credible route where the work cannot be separated safely from occupied areas, essential services, access, or protection. These are project-specific decision points, not a universal rule that any particular type of work requires a closure.
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Relocation is not a safety shortcut. The operator still needs to assess the receiving accommodation, residents’ individual needs, transfer arrangements, continuity of care, and the staffing and operating plan at the temporary site. The available official sources do not quantify the staffing, cost, or comparative risk difference between relocation and occupied phasing, so those questions need answers based on the project and proposed destination.
A practical decision sequence
Use the same scope and assumptions to assess an occupied plan and a closure or relocation plan. Record the reason for the selected approach, who is responsible for each control, and the conditions that would require work to pause or residents to move. This is a practical risk-management recommendation, not a quoted statutory checklist.
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- Review fire safety and resident needs. Revisit the fire-risk assessment as the premises change, and check resident-specific evacuation needs against each phase. Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service advises that care-home fire-risk assessments should be recorded and reviewed regularly, particularly when premises change. Scottish Government guidance recommends reviewing individual evacuation needs as those needs change.
- Check staffing and emergency arrangements. Establish whether staff available during each phase—including overnight—can provide ordinary care and carry out the emergency plan for the residents present. Where residents have high dependency, assess whether the proposed evacuation strategy, fire-safety arrangements, and staffing are suitable.
- Address infection prevention in the relevant jurisdiction. In England, adult social-care providers must have regard to the Department of Health and Social Care’s infection-prevention code when deciding how they will meet the regulations. The code page does not set out a construction-specific work protocol. Develop project-specific controls with appropriate infection-prevention expertise rather than treating the general code as a construction method statement.
- Build and compare both operating plans. For occupied work, set out care arrangements, work areas, access, staffing, and emergency arrangements phase by phase. For closure or relocation, set out transfer needs, temporary accommodation, care continuity, staffing, and the steps needed before the home can resume operating. Obtain project-specific estimates for construction, operating, transfer, and other relevant costs and for the schedule; the cited sources do not supply comparative figures.
- Set review and stop conditions. Document who monitors the arrangements, who can pause work, and what change in the building, staffing, or residents’ needs would trigger a fresh assessment or a move. Keep the reasoning and responsibilities clear enough for the operator and relevant advisers to review as the project develops.
Infection prevention and refurbishment in England
The Department of Health and Social Care’s Health and Social Care Act 2008 code of practice on the prevention and control of infections applies to providers of adult social care in England. The department says providers must have regard to the code when deciding how they will meet regulations; it also says the Care Quality Commission must take the code into account when making registration decisions. The code page was last updated on 13 December 2022.
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That obligation is relevant to refurbishment planning, but the code page does not prescribe a construction-specific infection-control method. An operator should not present the general code as if it supplied detailed site controls for a particular project. The work plan needs to address the home’s actual circumstances with suitable expertise. The English code should not be presented as a rule for Scotland; check the applicable requirements and guidance for the country where the home is located.
Which guidance applies where?
Care homes operate under country-specific rules and guidance. The sources below are useful within their stated scope, but do not replace checking the requirements applicable to the particular home, local authority, fire authority, regulator, and building.
- England, infection prevention: The DHSC infection-prevention code applies to adult social-care providers in England.
- Scotland, care-home fire safety: The Scottish Government’s Fire safety: existing care homes: practical guidance addresses resident dependency, staffing, layout, individual evacuation needs, and evacuation strategies. Its recommendations should be used in their Scottish context.
- England, residential-care fire risk: The government’s Fire safety risk assessment: residential care premises discusses evacuation strategies and management arrangements for residential-care premises in England.
- England, assessment review advice: Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service’s residential-care guidance advises recording fire-risk assessments and reviewing them regularly, particularly when premises change.
- Broader health and social-care refurbishment context: NHS England’s Health Technical Memorandum 07-07: Sustainable health and social care buildings is broader refurbishment guidance, not a direct comparison of whether care homes should remain occupied or close. It was first published on 20 March 2013, and its page was updated on 26 January 2024.
What the available guidance cannot decide for you
The official sources cited here provide decision factors and safety guidance; they do not set a universal threshold for when residents may remain during refurbishment. Nor do they compare the cost, duration, or resident outcomes of phased work and temporary closure. There are no figures here that support a general claim that phasing saves money, closure is faster, or either option is better for residents.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsThose questions must be answered for the specific project. The operator needs to weigh the effect of each plan on residents, care continuity, evacuation, staffing, construction, and operations, then obtain project-specific cost and schedule estimates. If the occupied plan cannot be shown to work for every proposed phase, it should not be selected on the assumption that phasing is inherently less disruptive or more economical.
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