A state-of-the-art care home has opened as part of a £25million project to improve housing for Camden’s older people.

Ham & High: Official opening of the Maitalnd Park Care Home from left Alun Thomas chair of Shaw Care, Cllr Pat Callaghan, resident Mary Purcell (85), Jeremy Nixey Chief Executive of Shaw Health Care Group, Cllr Sarah Heyward, resident George Rivens (87) and Filiz Yalezan support staff.Official opening of the Maitalnd Park Care Home from left Alun Thomas chair of Shaw Care, Cllr Pat Callaghan, resident Mary Purcell (85), Jeremy Nixey Chief Executive of Shaw Health Care Group, Cllr Sarah Heyward, resident George Rivens (87) and Filiz Yalezan support staff. (Image: Archant)

Camden Council leader Cllr Sarah Hayward and deputy leader Cllr Pat Callaghan, the cabinet member for adult social care, joined residents and staff for the official opening of Maitland Park Care Home, in Maitland Park Road, Gospel Oak, this week.

The home, which houses 60 older people with round-the-clock care, is managed by Shaw healthcare under the firm’s £122million, 30-year contract to run all Camden Council care homes.

It is the first of two new homes to be built under the £25million “homes for older people” scheme, along with another in nearby Wellesley Road, which will replace a run-down centre on the same site.

New resident Florence Scott, 101, said: “It’s lovely here. I have a nice bed and a shower and TV in my room. It’s like a hotel, and everyone is very kind.”

Cllr Pat Callaghan said: “Maitland Park is a beacon of how facilities for older people should be designed and built.

“While many of the residents already know each other from previous care homes in Camden, there is a real sense of a micro-community forming and it will be interesting to see how this continues to develop.”