Summary
The care home business is heading for a crisis according to Evan Davis's guests in this edition of The Bottom Line.
The cost of providing care in this labour-intensive business has increased significantly because of the introduction of the National Living Wage. The fees paid by local authorities on behalf of poorer residents no longer cover the cost of providing accommodation, food and staffing. Care homes make up the shortfall by charging higher fees to privately funded residents. Social care analyst William Laing tells Evan Davis that private payers subsidise publicly funded residents by, on average, £8000 per annum. But this is not an option in less affluent areas with a shortage of fee paying clients.
John Ransford of the HC-One group provides care for mainly publicly funded residents. He tells Evan that 24 hour care for the elderly has to be provided for less than the cost of a night in a Travelodge.
Evan's guests believe that the care sector's business model is unsustainable. Find out what they think will happen next.
Guests:
Dr. Jane Townson. Chief Executive Officer, Somerset Care Group
John Ransford, Non-Executive Director, HC-One
William Laing, Founder and a Director of Laing Buisson, Healthcare Intelligence Company
Producer: Julie Ball.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the BBC. |
| 0:03.9 | Hello and welcome to the programme. |
| 0:06.4 | There are few areas of life which this country has mismanaged more badly than care for the elderly. |
| 0:12.5 | Care home providers have been going bust at a shocking rate. |
| 0:15.4 | The NHS has been snarled up by the failure of the care system to look after its clients. |
| 0:20.0 | And despite numerous |
| 0:21.7 | commissions and inquiries, promises and proposals, there is still no adequate long-term system |
| 0:27.4 | for paying for care. Oh, and if you thought it was all the sort of problem we can just hope |
| 0:31.9 | we'll go away, remember, we are growing older by the day. Business has a place in sorting it out, as does government, but the interaction of the two |
| 0:40.3 | has not always been working very well. There was no short-term respite in last year's |
| 0:45.3 | autumn statement from the Chancellor. Despite pleas from across the sector, no extra money was forthcoming. |
| 0:52.3 | So what is happening in the sector and what should be happening? |
| 0:56.3 | My guests might help to answer these questions. |
| 0:59.1 | First up is Dr Jane Townsend, Chief Executive of Somerset Care Group. |
| 1:04.6 | Now, just tell us a little about Somerset Care. |
| 1:06.4 | First of all, where are you? |
| 1:07.3 | Because it's not just Somerset Jane. |
| 1:08.9 | No, we operate in Somerset and across southern England. |
| 1:11.8 | So Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Isle of White. |
| 1:16.3 | Right. How many care homes? |
| 1:18.0 | We have 30 care homes. |
| 1:19.9 | And we also provide domiciliary care. |
... |
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