04/25/2016

Care Homes are closing due to the reduction in Council Budgets

Very interesting article in the Financial Times (FT) outlining the financial challenges to care home in light of the reduction in local authorities funding / budgets. If all of these care homes are closing who is going to look after our senior citizens. 47 care home closed in England and Wales in 2014-15, up from 40 the previous year. Funding needs to be increased to care Homes if this trend is not going to continue. Our Senior Citizens deserve better. Further cuts in local authority spending, added to the introduction of the national living wage, will put further pressure on the sector.

With funding from local authorities contributing a substantial amount to the revenue of care homes there is understandable concern of the impact any further spending cuts would have.

Legislation to increase council tax by two per cent to help fund social care is a step in the right direction, but there’s concern that this will not meet the spike in demand caused by the ageing population. People are living longer so spend more time in care and there is not the growth in the younger population to support this through additional tax take. A hybrid solution will have to be found.

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