Residential care providers urged to work together to stop closures

Residential care providers must join forces with their competitors to stop local authorities from pricing them out of business, a senior children’s lawyer has warned.

Raphael Silver, senior partner at Silver Fitzgerald and member of the Law Society’s Children Panel, told CYP Now that providers need to band together to stand up to councils that are increasingly pooling budgets and working with neighbouring authorities to buy services more cheaply.

“There is an overwhelming imbalance in bargaining positions between providers and local authorities working together, such as the pan-London group of councils and the West Midlands consortia. If providers don’t club together, they won’t have the bargaining power to say no to price reductions.”

Silver added that providers would be more likely to maintain current standards in care homes by negotiating as one. “It’s really tough to deliver quality of care with less money,” he said. “If people do not band together, they can be treated with indifference.”

Roy Williamson, executive officer at the Independent Children’s Homes Association, said providers must consider working together more closely for the good of the sector.

“There is strength in unity because commissioners can play providers off against each other,” he explained. “Some local authorities have driven prices down so far that they risk putting providers out of business.”

He warned that quality of care would be compromised if local authorities continue to push prices down so aggressively.

“We’re not unrealistic about the state of public finances and things will get more difficult after the general election whoever wins,” Williamson added. “But we all want what’s best for quality. We have to look at how we can work together and have open discussions between providers and commissioners. The raison d’etre of this is providing good services for young people.”

An independent residential care provider, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed that children’s homes should do more to work together. But they warned that joint working is being held back, because providers are not working on a “level playing field”.

“You’d need all the providers to work together on the same terms to offer value for money and a good service at a reasonable price,” the source said.