Concern at the rapidly escalating social care crisis in the UK has been growing for some time.  This prompted emergency financial assistance from the Treasury in this month’s Budget.  Nick Hood, the Business Risk Adviser at Opus has been working with the BBC for many months to provide financial analysis of one part of the social care system, the domiciliary sector.  The research was conducted jointly with the financial health monitoring specialists, Company Watch, utilising their database and analytical model.

This research was featured in the BBC Panorama programme and a BBC Wales feature, both broadcast on 20th March 2017.  Interviews were undertaken with a care provider company, care workers, hospital departments, a major local authority, a leading academic and a range of institutions, including the UK Home Care Association. The programme revealed the many problems facing the sector.  These ranged from its fragile finances, upward cost pressures caused by the introduction of the National Living Wage and severe recruitment difficulties. Ultimately, the system is at or close to breaking point, with deeply concerning capacity issues.

The complex interaction between the NHS, the residential care sector and the domiciliary care market was highlighted, confirming that problems in any one area spilled over at once into the others.  The extra support from the government in the Budget is welcome, but is clearly totally inadequate to deal with such deep seated issues.

To see the whole BBC Panorama programme, click on the link below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08k9zgn/panorama-britains-homecare-crisis