- Conference
- 2024 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 11 June 2024
- Decision
- Carried
1)This Conference notes that in the Unison U magazine, issue 33 of summer 2024, there are two articles concerned with care. The first is an interview with Wes Streeting, who would become the minister responsible for Care and the NHS in the event of a Labour government. The second talks to carers about their roles and aspirations. A common theme of both articles is the need to produce an integrated, well funded care sector where workers are valued and money is used for those in care and not for shareholder dividends or inflated CEO pay.
The Care Quality Commission, reported that care homes profits in March 2022 were at their lowest level since it began its market oversight regime in 2015 and that home care profits had also fallen. In its 2022/23 report, the CQC said, ‘workforce capacity and capability pressures, and concern about financial pressures, are forcing some care providers out of the market or increasing the reliance on people who pay for their own care (self-funded care)’. The CQC also suggested that local authorities were reporting that people’s care needs were increasingly complex. This could further account for the difficulty in obtaining and implementing a coherent policy which is both fair and effective.
The King’s Fund, an independent charity working to improve health and care in England. has stated in its report on Primary and Social care ‘The health and care system in England must shift its focus away from hospital care to primary and community services if it is to be effective and sustainable.( The King Fund – March 2024).
Nevertheless, in a separate study, reported in the Observer for 24 July 2022, ‘The UK’s biggest care home chains saw their profit margins jump by 18% on average during the pandemic, while the highest paid director’s salary surged to £2.3m.
This research is by the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at Surrey University and Trinava. In consultation with Unison it found that six of the 10 biggest adult social care providers for whom data was available saw their underlying profit margins widen between 2019 and 2020, the first year of the pandemic.’
‘There are approximately 564,000 care home beds in the United Kingdom (462k in England, 46k in Scotland, 26k in Wales and 16k in Northern Ireland) spread across 17,600 homes.
It is estimated that 84% of care homes are privately run, 13% are run by charities, such as Methodist Homes for the Aged (MHA) and only 3% by local councils.
There are 5 providers which own a significant share of the market:
• HC-One (14,000 beds)
• Four Seasons Health Care (16,975 beds)
• Barchester Healthcare (12,418 beds)
• Care UK (8,485 beds)
• Bupa (7,663 beds)
2. This Conference believes that consolidation, financed by private equity’s access to relatively cheap capital (low interest rates were from 2008 – Feb 2022) has been a key to the growth of these ‘big five’.
Conference notes the report, SUPPORT GUARANTEED, written by Andrew Harrop and Ben Cooper and published 8June 2023. This was commissioned by Unison from the Fabian Society and proposes a detailed plan for a national care service to provide world class care for all.
3. This Conference resolves to call on the National Retired Members Committee to liaise with the NEC, Labour Link, and other relevant organisations. The aim of this is to use appropriate resources and channels to support the plan for a national care service detailed in the report with the aim of influencing the next government to make this one of its key commitments.