Union urges action to protect care home residents
A TRADE union has called for action to protect residents in care homes run by Four Seasons Health Care, after a report warned of the “high financial risks” the company was facing.
The GMB said a viability analysis of the firm commissioned by England’s Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) made worrying reading. It comes at a time of increasing concern over the state of the care home industry. This year has seen the collapse of major providers including Southern Cross, Choices Care and Scotland’s Argus Home Care.
As The Herald reported yesterday, many care home providers are coping with reductions in income from local authorities and struggling to meet deadlines for ensuring staff are fully qualified and registered.
Four Seasons, which began life as a Scottish care company, has 63 care homes in Scotland including 13 which it took from Southern Cross Healthcare.
The report on the company warns that social work directors should plan for a “worst case scenario” due to the problems it faces including high levels of debt and the need for complex debt restructuring.
It says that “financial collapse in the next 12 months seems a lesser risk” but adds: “In the short to medium term (14 months to three years) financial risks are very high. Adass may want to plan for a worst case scenario within this time frame.”
Justin Bowden, GMB National Officer, said: “We cannot put at risk the care of thousands of vulnerable elderly adults.”
A spokesman for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) said that councils had been working with other partners to monitor the viability of a small number of care providers and to ensure quality services. He added that a National Contingency Planning Group set up in the wake of the collapse of Southern Cross was aware of the report on Four Seasons.
A spokeswoman for Four Seasons Health Care said there were significant inaccuracies in the document prepared for Adass.
She added: “Representatives of Adass and Four Seasons Health Care intend to meet with the intention of producing a much more accurate report which will be significantly more reassuring.”
The company was in good financial health and different from Southern Cross in key respects, she said – such as the fact that Four Seasons owns 60% of the facilities it operates and so is not as vulnerable to rent increases.
“The group is trading very successfully,” she added.
No-one from the Association of Directors of Social Work was available to comment.
