Figures have shown care home insolvencies have risen in the past year by 83%. In 2016-2017 81 homes became insolvent whilst in 2017-2018 this number jumped to 148 homes becoming insolvent.
There are plenty of reasons why this number has risen. The obvious ones are; rise in the National Living Wage and interest rates, lack of local funding and an increase in reliance on agency staff.
Comments from professionals have said that care homes are clearly not receiving enough local government funding to endure the profit margins necessary to run a business. With an aging population, care homes should be benefitting as opposed to not.
With local authorities planning to make huge savings over the next couple of years in their social care budgets, this number of insolvencies could be seen to rise even further. The rising costs within the care industry means providers need further help from the government. It remains to be seen what will be done on this.
