The parlous financial state of the UK’s domiciliary care sector has been the subject of increasing debate and public concern since government austerity measures began to bite into local authority budgets and as the largest by far cost component for most domiciliary care providers, labour costs have risen inexorably to increasingly unsustainable levels. Company Watch and Opus Restructuring have now been publishing research data on the financial health of the care home sector since 2013, seeking to raise awareness of the escalating social care crisis.
In the autumn of 2016, the BBC commissioned Opus Restructuring to extend its research to cover the domiciliary care sector and some limited elements of this research were used in a BBC Panorama programme and in a BBC Wales programme, both broadcast on 20th March 2017. Subsequently, we expanded our research to include the finances of the three major national chains of care providers and it is this larger data sample that is the subject of our report into the finances of the UK homecare sector, which we have published today.
Our report has been prepared in conjunction with Company Watch, the financial health monitoring specialists, whose database and analytical model was used to compile the financial analysis within the document. It covers the finances of some 2,600 domiciliary care providers, including the three largest non-franchised national chains.
The parlous state of finances in the domiciliary sector were highlighted earlier this month, when one of the largest providers in the South West, Cleeve Link Homecare collapsed, leaving local authorities struggling to find alternative providers for almost 500 elderly and vulnerable clients.