State of social care makes Four Seasons care homes boss 'embarrassed to be British'

Ian Smith, chairman of Four Seasons Healthcare, the largest care home provider in the UK, has called on the care sector “to stop being British and pulling our forelocks to politicians” and has demanded the Government take action over the “failing health and social care system in Britain”.

Mr Smith, who is in charge of over 450 care homes, made an impassioned speech at the Care England conference. Four Seasons Healthcare, which is owned by the private equity firm Terra Firma, has been the subject of much speculation over recent weeks that it is preparing to sell off £60m of care home assets due to financial problems.

Mr Smith revealed the pressures that the care home provider is under, saying: “In Four Seasons we have 300-400 nurse vacancies as we speak. Fee rates have reduced by 5-6 per cent in the last three years, our compliance costs are going up and less people are receiving funding for social care.”

Four Seasons Healthcare cares for over 20,000 residents and comprises Four Seasons, Brighterkind and The Huntercombe Group.

A shortage of nurses is a problem felt by care homes as a whole, the NHS is also struggling with this problem but working for the NHS tends to be seen as a more attractive option than working in a care home.

Nursing Shortage

The nursing shortage is an issue that has been around for some time and has been gradually getting worse and worse. “This has not crept up on us, it is disgraceful. How pathetic that we have a nursing shortage. We need politicians to start getting their act together. I am embarrassed to be British at the state of our health and social care,” said Mr Smith.

He believes one of the main problems is that the NHS has not adapted to the changing needs of the British population.

“When we set up the NHS in 1948 it was marvellously designed. It was a bold and innovative system that was fitted to the needs of the country. However things have changed and we have turned many acute illnesses into chronic conditions and people born now live till the age of 85.

“The policies of the Coalition Government and this Government have done things to make the NHS immeasurably worse. The Government’s response is to take the money out of social care and give it to the NHS.”

NHS prioritised over Social Care

Social care is the poor cousin when it comes to funding. The Four Seasons boss attributes this to the Government’s obsession for being perceived as the saviour of the NHS, criticising it for its “vanity and self-aggrandisement”.

“In the UK we have some of the worse health and social care outcomes in the world. It is a broken system. It is a failing system and we are failing our population.”

The way forward, according to Mr Smith is integrated care and within hospitals consolidation of clinical units. “What needs to be happening now could be done within weeks. We can integrate health and social care right now.

“We need to merge the health and social care entitlements .We need to get people to start paying for their healthcare now and we need proper commissioning.”

Better Care Fund

The Better Care Fund which was meant to transform local health and social care services by pooling resources, also came under criticism, with Mr Smith saying: “Not one penny of the Better Care Fund has gone to older and frail people. Let’s start looking after the people who need it. We need to accelerate the introduction of the personal budget. The money still pours into GPs’ surgeries. It needs to pour to the individuals.”

A Commons Select Committee found earlier this year that the priority of the Better Care Fund shifted from improving local services through integration to protecting NHS resources, with NHS spending judged a higher priority than supporting adult social care.

Cuts to local authority budgets over recent years have led to fees for care homes being reduced which has severely hit care home providers, such as Four Seasons which has a lot of local authority funded residents.

Mandatory minimum fee rate

To prevent this happening, Mr Smith would like to see a mandatory minimum fee rate for care homes and a regulator put in charge to monitor this.

A big concern of his is that there is no one in charge of social care as there is with health. “No one is responsible for what is most dangerous – the collapse of the social care system,” he said.

With all employers expected to pay the National Living Wage from next April to people aged 25 and over, care home providers will soon feel the pressure even more.

“We have to demand more of our politicians,” said Mr Smith. “We are letting this country down. We have to be a lot more vocal. We have failed Nye Bevan in the last 60 years. If something doesn’t happen, our older people will suffer and chronic diseases will worsen. It is an ever tightening spiral.”

click here for more details or to contact Four Seasons Health Care Group