A third of care home owners in Wales to leave care sector over next five years

Over a third of care home owners in Wales don't expect to be in business in five years’ time, according to a new survey.

The survey carried out by Care Forum Wales, which represents more than 500 independent care providers, revealed that care home owners are becoming increasingly fed up with the chronic underfunding of the sector and the difficulties in recruiting staff as they are unable to pay high wages due to lack of funding.

The survey found 34 per cent of care home owners expect to quit over the next five years, 74 per cent have difficulty recruiting staff and 60 per cent are unhappy with the current inspection regime.

The findings are quite ominous as with the elderly population rising and the number of people with dementia on the increase, the need for more care homes grows all the time.

Mario Kreft, chair of Care Forum Wales said: “Sadly it’s not surprising that people feel so despondent that they are really think of throwing in the towel.

“I think it particularly affects the smaller, community based homes often in rural areas that rely on the owners' input.”

Nursing homes look set to be particularly hard hit according to Mr Kreft who said: “People have to understand that nursing homes are only paid an extra 72p an hour above residential care rates. For that you have to contend with is a whole raft of extra responsibilities and legislation. For one thing, you have to have a 24/7 fulltime registered nurse so you don't have to be a genius to work out that you need 20 plus people just to pay for a nurse round the clock.

“Increasingly, I'm afraid, the sums just don't add up and nobody knows how these places are going to survive - everybody now knows that health boards are underfunding basic health board funded nursing care in Wales. We are almost certainly going to see a major reduction in the number of available nursing beds unless something drastic is done to address the situation.”

He added: “What we’ve got to recognise is that there are almost as many nurse beds registered for nursing care in the independent sector homes in Wales as there are in the NHS.

“Care Forum Wales believes we need to link these two elements together so that we have a system that is integrated, including domiciliary care. To a large degree I think the Welsh Government does get it, but that understanding has not filtered down to local level where far too often local authorities are in one silo and health authorities are in another silo.”

Care Forum Wales also revealed that over half of care providers are unhappy with the inspection regime in Wales with many saying inspections leave them feeling demotivated and do not feel the process is constructive.