Care home owners in 'distress' as staff quit and rising costs threaten homes

Care workers are quitting care home jobs in the South East faster than they can be replaced and care providers across the UK are thinking of shutting down because funding for local authority/NHS-funded residents has not kept up with rising costs.

No less than 83 per cent of care providers in the South East of England say they are finding it more difficult to replace staff than ever before, according to a poll carried out in May and June by the South East Social Care Alliance (SESCA).

Almost half (45 per cent) of care providers in the region are thinking of exiting the care sector because funding for local authority/ NHS-funded residents has not kept up with their rising costs.

Rebecca Pritchard, chief executive of Surrey Care Association, said: “Our members talk about the distress they feel when they can’t deliver the care people need.

“Many have seen staff leave for similar roles but better terms and conditions in the local authority or NHS or in local retail jobs. We talk about integrated care systems, but integration won’t work when there isn’t equal pay for equal work.”

SESCA, which brings together 10 county-level care associations in the South East, surveyed care home providers about their income, workforce, costs and future viability.

Erica Lockhart, chair of SESCA, said: “The results of this survey should be a major wake-up call that action is needed now. Concerns about their ability to continue operating and providing care are at very high levels and, as it stands, no support is coming – that must change.”

In Scotland, Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents care homes, has warned some of Scotland’s 797 care homes are closing, making hundreds of elderly and disabled people homeless because they can’t afford to pay, what is for some, a six-fold rise in energy costs.

The care leader warns that even before winter arrives, hospitals will have no choice but to take in evicted residents who have nowhere else to go.

He said: “I am now more worried about the survival of social care delivery in Scotland than at any time before or during the Covid pandemic."

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “Providers in the South East face particular pressures from the high costs of living and housing in the region, but the reality is that these are not issues isolated to the South East.

"Care England would echo the recommendations of the report and call on Government to work at both a national and local level to ensure the future viability of the care sector."