Local authority funded homes unsustainable – June 2022

Four Seasons Health Care Group owns 131 care homes and is selling 111 of these in England, Scotland and Jersey. Four Seasons’ care homes in Northern Ireland are being sold as part of a separate deal, due to complete next month. The care homes up for sale mostly offer local authority funded places which have been paying fee levels that could not support excellence in care or give people a meaningful quality of life and certainly cannot remunerate care workers appropriately for the rewarding work they do.

The management team of any business has a responsibility to manage shareholders money efficiently and effectively whilst delivering the objectives of the business. However, when a private care provider is funded by local authorities, they face an impossible task of trying to produce any meaningful profit, if they are to deliver on company objectives.

Relatives now face months of uncertainty, fearing they may have to move their loved one, who suffers with dementia, to another home, as they will not be able to afford the increases in fee levels that are certain to arise out of the sale of the homes to private operators. The differential between local authority rates paid to these homes and the actual cost of providing good care, within a homely, clean, safe environment by competent, motivated, and qualified staff, is not just wide, it’s a gulf. Kent County Council recently offered to pay £550 per week, to Hale Place, whereas most dementia providers charge between £1,100 to 2,000 per week?

It’s time to put this into perspective and give a dose of reality to local authorities, government and the general public. Barchester, with over 250 care homes and seven registered hospitals, have been boosting turnover year on year since 2017, by raising fee levels regularly, above any of the usual parameters. Relatives have voiced their disapproval and disgust within national press, and many have vilified the company.

Barchester have countered to justify their increased fee levels by citing the rises in National Living Wage, the costs incurred by deciding to pay staff above the minimum wage and to ‘amend’ holiday pay. Other reasons given included PPE costs, to pay staff to test, installing Covid-safe visiting rooms and a 300 per cent increase in insurance costs.

Some residents are already aware that, cost of care in some home, will reach £80,000 per year. Others have indicated that fees for care at a Barchester home, in Hertfordshire, are rising by more than £100 per week, to bring the annual bill to almost £90,000.

In my opinion, if society wants a world class care system, where people are supported by professional people in their own homes, residential homes and hospital, then a fair cost must be levied to sustain such services. We can see from the plight of Four Seasons Health Car, and thousands of other private providers, what happens when the state grossly underfunds care of vulnerable people. They go bust. Furthermore, during the pandemic, communities recognised the commitment and dedication required of carers to ensure people had support under the most testing of conditions, people came out in their thousands and clapped NHS and Care Workers. It seemed all agreed that carers deserve better pay and conditions but when providers demand a fair price for the care they provide, society quickly turns on them. The only way I can pay care workers higher wages is to ensure the business charges a suitable fee to sustain our services, long term.

When the Government announces ‘fair price of care’ later this year, it will certainly fall woefully short of the average price of providing outstanding dementia care services in the Southeast. Thousands of providers will evaluate the sustainability of remaining in this market and hundreds, if not thousands, of employees will leave, to look for meaningful employment, where they are valued because providers will be forced to reduce staffing levels and freeze wages. The 120,000 care vacancies that I reported earlier this year, has increased to 150,000 within 6 months and care contracts are being handed back to local authorities daily. The future for the sector is bleak but ‘creative’ providers will find a way to remunerate workers fairly whilst delivering quality outcomes; we always do.