MHA response to care homes market study

The Competitions and Market Authority (CMA) has published the final findings of its year long care homes market study. As one of the largest charities providing care homes for nearly 75 years, MHA has taken an active part in the CMA study, providing comprehensive information on all aspect of our care home provision and our approach to supporting prospective residents and their families and enabling conversations with our experienced care home managers to help improve the CMA’s insight into the sector.

We currently have 89 care homes with a further one in development. We care for 4,686 residents in residential, nursing and specialist dementia care settings.

We welcome the findings from the CMA. We were pleased that their research found that ‘residents had received good care and that the sector performs a vital public service that benefits many people and is staffed by many dedicated and caring individuals’.

It is clear that this study highlights the urgent need to put social care funding on a more stable, sustainable footing now. We welcome this and hope the Government will respond by putting the issue of social care at the top of its agenda to make sure no older person is disadvantaged and that older people’s care is properly funded.

We strongly concur with the CMA’s analysis that there is a significant funding shortfall in the sector because councils are paying fee rates that are well below the real cost of care. And we support the CMA’s view that there is an urgent need for a better planned, more sustainable and confident environment for the development of new care homes.

We welcome the CMA calls for greater protection, fair treatment and rights of redress for care home residents and their families. At MHA we expect the highest standards of openness, transparency and respect for our residents and their families.

We agree with the CMA’s view that more can be done to help people navigate the complexities of the system. At MHA, our managers are trained and empowered to support potential residents and their families to choose the right home and the right care for them. We welcome any steps or the wider sector that will help people navigate the system more easily.

The study recommends that an independent body be created to provide oversight of LAs’ current delivery of care, planning of future care, to advise on the costs of care and on future needs for care services and capacity requirements. We believe this will only work if the independent body has real teeth and if there are sufficient resources in the system to respond to its advice. The Government will need to consider how to respond to this recommendation carefully if it is to achieve the step change needed.

It is disappointing that the Green Paper on social care has been delayed again until the summer of 2018. This report highlights that action is needed now in terms of the immediate funding crisis in social care.

You can read a more detailed response from MHA to the report here, as well as our submission to the CMA. The CMA report can be found here.