Political opinion with John Milne MP: Meeting the challenge of social care

Last week I visited Warnham Lodge Care Home, a new care home specialising in supporting people with acquired brain injuries. This is positive for the country and for Horsham – there’s a national shortage of places for high-needs patients.

All patients have free access to their new hydrotherapy pool, which is a hugely beneficial kind of treatment. But above all I was impressed with the commitment to staff training and a focus on careers. If the government can’t fund a full national care service today, perhaps they could make a relatively modest investment in skills and training.

As we know, there’s a national shortage in social care as a whole. The managing director of Splendid Care, Antony Hall, gave me an expert account of the challenges facing social care provision as he showed me round.

Demand for places continues to rise as our population ages. Yet paradoxically, across the country we see more homes closing than opening. Why is that happening? The answer lies in ever-tighter local authority budgets.

As is typical, West Sussex County Council pays a rate for residential care which is usually below the real cost. Care homes have to make up the difference with cross subsidies from private residents, who pay a higher rate. The care homes which we see closing are those that cannot find enough private residents.

At the same time, private equity companies are buying up care homes for investment. They specialise in providing a lower level of nursing care so they can make profit margins in excess of 20% - vastly higher than a home like Warnham Lodge.

That’s good for private equity, but not so great for society. In Mr Hall’s view, we are heading towards a crunch point. There simply aren’t enough homes willing and able to take on high-needs residents.

I pay credit to Andy Burnham for raising this issue and initiating cross-party talks. However, he has now made it clear that reform will be a Labour manifesto commitment for the next Parliament, not an action for this one. I’m not sure what that’s worth in practice.

One thing’s clear. We need to put a value on how much a social care system can save, not just on how much it costs. The most expensive way to treat people is in a hospital emergency care department – but that’s not factored into the price. Madness!