By Vivienne Russell | 6 December 2011
MPs have warned the Department of Health to ‘get to grips’ with the risks to the social care market to avoid another Southern Cross-style collapse.
In a report published today, the Commons Public Accounts Committee says neither Whitehall nor councils know what is happening in their local care markets or whether one provider is becoming too dominant.Care home provider Southern Cross collapsed earlier this year after it was unable to pay rent to its landlords. The homes have been transferred to new operators. The company had a total market share of 9%, although this was often concentrated in certain areas. For example, in the Northeast its market share was 30%.
PAC chair Margaret Hodge said: ‘Local authority budgets are shrinking and large-scale providers are racking up debt – Four Seasons Health Care, for instance, carried nearly £1bn of debt –yet the department is not monitoring their financial health. There is currently no early warning system for providers getting into difficulty.’
Hodge added that it was ‘deeply worrying’ that the DoH has not made it clear what will happen if care providers fail.
She also said the lack of consistent information about local care markets made it impossible for personal budget holders to make informed choices about their care.
The PAC report says effective oversight of the care market is essential to protect the interests of both care users and taxpayers. It calls on the DoH to address this in its forthcoming white paper on social care.
The department issued a discussion paper on the social care market in October and said views arising from this would feed into the white paper, which is due to be published next spring.
Care minister Paul Burstow yesterday confirmed that all the care homes formerly run by Southern Cross had been transferred to new operators. He said this had been done with the ‘minimal impact on residents and staff’.
