Our anonymous insider says financial turmoil at Southern Cross should not come as a surprise to any local authority
Crisis in care homes should not come as a surprise. Photograph: Gary Calton
We could have seen this coming. Southern Cross, the largest provider of care home places in the country has been struggling since "as safe as bricks" lost its meaning during the property crash. The fact that it is owned by a private equity firm which tried to make profits at the height of the property boom means that the homes and futures of 31,000 residents in 750 care homes run by Southern Cross hang in the balance.
That this seems to have come as a surprise is curious. It isn't just Southern Cross that is in trouble. Age UK has reported that the care home sector will need billions of pounds in government funding to survive the current crisis.
I remain slightly sceptical and ambivalent. Many private companies and individuals made fortunes on the back of the increased marketisation of the care home sector in the 1990s and 2000s when local authorities tended to sell off much of their own stock following the push towards private sector providers by the introduction of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990.
The money made in the past seems to have been forgotten now, in more troubled times, and the care home sector is calling for a bail-out, blaming the lack of funds flowing from local authorities. As we wait for the Dilnot commission on care funding and support to report in July, there is a shorter-term crisis to address to which Dilnot will not provide a short-term solution.
As a social worker involved with older adults for more than 10 years, and a care worker in a residential home before that, my adult life seems to be wrapped in and around the periphery of residential care services. I have had families ask me, as I am making placements, if their parents would be able to live out their lives in a particular private care home because they are worried it might close down "like Southern Cross". Nothing I can say can allay any of these fears. My own council does not own care homes any more, and those that exist in neighbouring areas are lilkely to be sold rapidly. It is easier to make money from student residences than care homes for the elderly, particularly in central London.
The difficulties at Southern Cross and the precarious nature of profits, or the lack of them, sing a potentially prophetic lesson to those looking at opening up the NHS to private companies – a lesson in the risk of leaving care in the hands of profit makers.
Will there be a bail-out? There is certainly a lack of suitable, good quality residential and nursing care placements. The government may be planning to keep more people at home receiving care, but there remains a need for some to receive 24-hour support. As long as care in the home remains limited, preventative work is cast aside so those meeting the stricter care criteria have increasingly higher needs.
It doesn't augur well, but it could be a wake-up call for those who believe that efficiency of the private sector will be a cure-all to the profligacy of flabby public services. We would do well to remember the lessons of Southern Cross as we move into a new stage of public/private collaboration.
The writer is a social worker who specialises in managing the care of older people.
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/
That this seems to have come as a surprise is curious. It isn't just Southern Cross that is in trouble. Age UK has reported that the care home sector will need billions of pounds in government funding to survive the current crisis.
I remain slightly sceptical and ambivalent. Many private companies and individuals made fortunes on the back of the increased marketisation of the care home sector in the 1990s and 2000s when local authorities tended to sell off much of their own stock following the push towards private sector providers by the introduction of the NHS and Community Care Act 1990.
The money made in the past seems to have been forgotten now, in more troubled times, and the care home sector is calling for a bail-out, blaming the lack of funds flowing from local authorities. As we wait for the Dilnot commission on care funding and support to report in July, there is a shorter-term crisis to address to which Dilnot will not provide a short-term solution.
As a social worker involved with older adults for more than 10 years, and a care worker in a residential home before that, my adult life seems to be wrapped in and around the periphery of residential care services. I have had families ask me, as I am making placements, if their parents would be able to live out their lives in a particular private care home because they are worried it might close down "like Southern Cross". Nothing I can say can allay any of these fears. My own council does not own care homes any more, and those that exist in neighbouring areas are lilkely to be sold rapidly. It is easier to make money from student residences than care homes for the elderly, particularly in central London.
The difficulties at Southern Cross and the precarious nature of profits, or the lack of them, sing a potentially prophetic lesson to those looking at opening up the NHS to private companies – a lesson in the risk of leaving care in the hands of profit makers.
Will there be a bail-out? There is certainly a lack of suitable, good quality residential and nursing care placements. The government may be planning to keep more people at home receiving care, but there remains a need for some to receive 24-hour support. As long as care in the home remains limited, preventative work is cast aside so those meeting the stricter care criteria have increasingly higher needs.
It doesn't augur well, but it could be a wake-up call for those who believe that efficiency of the private sector will be a cure-all to the profligacy of flabby public services. We would do well to remember the lessons of Southern Cross as we move into a new stage of public/private collaboration.
The writer is a social worker who specialises in managing the care of older people.
Source http://www.guardian.co.uk/
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