Government urged to 'redirect' care home provision towards not-for-profit sector

The National Care Forum (NCF), which represents not-for-profit care providers offering support to over 200,000 people, has said the government must act to ensure Britain’s care provision is "redirected" towards the not-for-profit sector.

The care home body’s comments come in response to last night’s BBC Panorama documentary ‘Panorama – Care in Crisis: Follow the Money’, (broadcast 6 December) which reported on care homes and their complex financial structures.

Vic Rayner, chief executive of the NCF said: “Social care delivers public good, and the majority of it is funded by the public purse. In the future it will be further supported by a hypothecated tax paid for by each and every eligible tax payer.

“Not-for-profit care provision ensures that all of the funding from either government or citizens is directed towards the delivery of care now and in the future.

“We strongly advocate strengthening the Government’s reform plans to ensure that the balance of care provision is redirected towards the not-for-profit sector and a set of parallel actions is developed over a ten-year period that strategically shifts public investment into the not-for-profit sector.

“The government must engage with this debate and grasp this moment in reform to ensure there is a much higher proportion of not-for-profit services delivering care across all our communities.”

The NCF, which represents 159 care organisations, highlights that many not-for-profit organisations providing care are charities or social housing providers - accountable not only to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) but also the Charity Commission and the Social Housing Regulator.

She urged the government to “listen now to a public that wants assurance that its money is being 100% invested in the communities that they are part of, and the people who need and deliver care. It is time to create a social care sector that is true to the values of the People at the heart of Care vision, and has people, not profit at its heart.”