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Private care homes in England are closing 22 times faster than state-owned facilities, a study based on official figures has found, raising questions about the quality of care in the independent sector.
Industry watchdog the Care Quality Commission closed 816 care homes between 2011 and 2023, of which 804 were for-profit facilities, according to analysis of CQC data by a team from the Universities of Oxford, Michigan and Roskilde.
The study, published in The Lancet medical journal on Tuesday, found that the homes were closed for putting residents at risk or failing to meet industry standards, affecting around 20,000 residents who were forced to go into emergency mode during the period. move place.
Research shows that while 0.15% of public care homes have been forced to close by regulators, the figure for for-profit care homes is much higher at 3.3%.
Benjamin Goodale, a researcher at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford, said the findings showed that outsourcing models “are struggling to deliver the quality of care that the most vulnerable in society deserve”.
He added: “Although it is rare, closures can result in significant costs to local authorities and customers who need to relocate.” At the last CQC inspection, 52 homes forced to close were rated ” Good”, most of which are in the private sector.
Although residents' fees are sometimes paid or partially paid by the state, nursing home providers argue that fees have failed to keep pace with increases in wage, energy, labor and food inflation.
Campaigners and health leaders have warned that the sector is under intense pressure to act to address a long-term workforce crisis with increasing demand for social care due to an aging population.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt shelved a plan in 2022 to limit how much individuals in England can pay for personal social care.
Some health experts say the policy, which has been on the books since 2014, is critical to addressing individuals' risk of catastrophic care costs.
Last year, the independent public spending watchdog warned that the government was failing to coordinate and track progress on its £1.7 billion plan to improve the quality of social care in England over the next decade.
The National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, said more than £1bn of the budget had been reallocated to deal with “other social care priorities”.
Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, the largest representative body for independent social care services, said many charities had already begun plans for care home closures and would only receive public funding if local authorities or the NHS increased fees. residents.
He added: “The fact that we have lost more than 800 care services amid a huge increase in demand for social care shows the fragility of the sector.”
The CQC said: “We account for private and publicly funded services in the same way. If services do not provide the level of care that people are entitled to and deserve, we will take action regardless of their source of funding.”
According to the CQC, 85% of care homes are now run by the private sector, up from 78% in 2011. Nursing homes were one of the first social services to be outsourced to the private sector by local authorities and the NHS in the 1980s.
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