The contents of CQC’s State of Care report 2022/2023 is unlikely to come as a shock to adult social care providers as there have been many significant ongoing challenges for providers in the past few years.
The cost of living crisis has placed further financial pressure on providers, who have struggled to meet rising running costs. This has been exacerbated by the increase in people requiring care and local authority budgets failing to keep pace with rising costs. Recruitment and retention difficulties has led to a huge increase in the recruitment of oversees staff, with nine in ten directors of adult social services expressing that there was not the ‘funding’ or ‘workforce’ to meet people’s care needs. It is therefore unsurprising that CQC’s data on registrations shows fewer care home locations compared with last year and that 29% of adult social care services expressed concern about the financial stability of their services, with care home profitability reportedly remaining at historically low levels.
It is also clear that these increasing financial restraints, demand and workforce challenges have impacted providers’ ability to provide consistently safe, effective and high-quality care and reinvestment and will continue to do so if appropriate action is not taken to deal with these ongoing issues.
Our specialist CQC solicitors act for care providers, successfully defending and representing numerous professionals and businesses across the health and adult social care sectors. For a no-obligation discussion with a member of our team, please call 0161 696 6250.
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