Via CHPI:
This research is the product of a collaboration between Warwick
Business School, University College London and the CHPI, funded by the
Economic and Social Research Council.
The two year study examined the financial impacts of the pandemic on
UK care homes for older people and their staff. It is based on an
analysis of hundreds of company accounts, interviews with care home
staff and a survey of over 600 care home workers.
Key findings
- Without £2 billion of government support, and care workers
working longer and harder, the sector would almost certainly have
collapsed financially during the first year of the pandemic. That
emergency funding helped to stabilise care homes early in the pandemic.
Some even increased payments to investors: a quarter of companies
increased dividends, by 11%.
- Since the peak of the pandemic,
the care home sector has faced a financial crisis due to the removal of
government financial support despite continuing COVID outbreaks,
workforce shortages and inflation.
- Government support focused
on keeping care homes financially viable, with only a small proportion
devoted directly to supporting staff who were working in extreme
circumstances. As many as 4 in 10 care home staff reported financial
problems related to working in care during the pandemic.
- The
financial impacts on staff varied by ownership type and size. Staff
experiences were more positive in not-for-profits and smaller
organisations on a range of measures.
- Staff valued in-person support from colleagues, managers, and external professionals
Recommendations
- Improved contingency planning for the financial impacts of
future pandemics and their consequences for staffing, including creating
a standby emergency social care workforce.
- Sustained government support for care homes coping with the lasting impacts of pandemics.
- Public
funding for care, including emergency support during pandemics,
should take account of evidence showing varying outcomes by ownership
type and should seek to promote forms of provision that offer both good
care and good jobs.
- Government and employers should improve
pay and conditions for care staff, in general and especially during
pandemics (including recognition payments, enhanced sick pay and
overtime rates).
- Government should work with employers
topromote a better understanding of how care staff experience their
working lives, for example through an annual national workforce survey
and to ensure adequate personal, professional, and clinical support is
accessible to social care staff, particularly during a pandemic.
Fotaki, M., Horton, A., Rowland, D., Ozdemir Kaya, D. & Gain, A. (2023) Bailed out and burned out? The financial impact of COVID-19 on UK care homes for older people and their workforce. Coventry: Warwick Business School.
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