Failed contracts – failing care

A freedom of information (FOI) request by a national newspaper has revealed an alarming growth in the number of care home and home care providers ditching contracts to provide care for local authority-funded individuals.

In just 10 months last year, 1,939 contracts with local authorities to provide care were handed back, compared with 731 contracts in the whole of 2019, according to the Mirror.

Christina McAnea, general secretary of public sector union Unison, told the paper: “Ministers must hear the clanging alarm bells and invest in social care. These figures paint a horrifying picture of a broken system.

“Every failed contract means sub-standard care for elderly, disabled and vulnerable people, and workers exploited with poverty wages and little or no sick pay. This has to stop.”