A MULTI-MILLION pound residential and care home hailed as one of the first of its kind is set to open next month.

Gravesham Place, currently under construction, is part of the £25m Gravesend Community Hospital development in Bath Street, Gravesend.

The centre has been called a "model for the future" by Oliver Mills, strategic director of social services for Kent County Council (KCC), who said the facility is "one of the first of its kind".

A KCC spokesman says having all the facilities on one site will make it easier for people to use the services and provide more opportunities for staff to work together.

The 80 en-suite bedroom residential and day home will provide care for a range of people, including those with dementia.

The centre, expected to open in April, is part of a health and social care Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project being built by Grosvenor House Group.

Residents at two homes in Wilmington could go to Gravesham Place.

The council is proposing to close 43-bedroom Leyton House, Common Lane, Wilmington, which has been there since 1964, because repairing it would cost millions of pounds.

KCC has also confirmed Stanley Morgan residential home, Barn End Lane, Wilmington, will close.

The council hopes to move residents and staff from Stanley Morgan care home, which has 33 beds, and opened in 1959, to Gravesham Place when it opens.

And a 30-day consultation is under way into the idea of moving residents and staff from Leyton House to Gravesham Place as early as June if the closure goes ahead.

But care assistant Jill Harvey, who has worked at the home for 31 years, has criticised any transfer, saying it would cause upset and disruption to people she cares for.

And although residents would not be forced to move, Mrs Harvey feels those without families will have no other choice.

She said: "It's horrendous for them. They don't know if they will stay with the same people."

Mr Mills said: "It is a leading-edge development, one of the first of its kind in the country and we are really proud of it.

"It shares the site with the new Gravesend Community Hospital, bringing together health and social care in a £25m development which is a model for the future.

"We fully understand Leyton House is home to everyone who lives there and they have concerns about the prospect of moving but we believe people will see the change is very much for the better."