National Health Service Commissioning Board and Clinical Commissioning Groups (Responsibilities and Standing Rules) (Amendment) Regulations 2020

Baroness Sheehan Excerpts

Monday 8th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Sheehan (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I add my thanks to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, for tabling this regret Motion. It gives me an opportunity to give heartfelt thanks to staff in care homes, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to care for the vulnerable elderly, often at risk to their own lives, and many of them are from BAME communities.

I will confine my remarks to the role of the private sector since the 1980s, when the responsibility for social care was moved from local authorities to private providers and others. Money was then readily available from banks for a business model that had government money behind it, and a growing clientele from an ageing population. Unsurprisingly, global private equity, sovereign wealth and hedge funds piled into the sector. However, what role has this corporate debt business model played in the growing social care crisis over the last three decades, the tragic culmination of which we see today, with the unacceptably high death toll in care homes? Is this a suitable model for businesses with huge social responsibilities? Does it lend itself to putting a protective ring around vulnerable people when they need it? I suggest not. Does the Minister agree that servicing debt from taxpayers’ money and from people funding their own care is not a good look, especially when the people who suffer when things go wrong are the elderly and infirm?

This pandemic has shown that, given that public money is contributing to public care, we need better scrutiny of the industry’s finances, as well as public accountability of private equity-owned care homes. Looking at the example of the Four Seasons debacle, in 2016, even as it hurtled towards insolvency, its directors were paid a total of £2.71 million, of which the highest paid received over £1.5 million. In 2019, the firm went into receivership. Who asks the questions when something like this happens in the care sector? Who are the individuals profiting, who take the money and run—leaving it to taxpayers to pick up the tab—and how do we do identify them when they hide behind complex financial structures, many of which are listed offshore? Does the Minister agree that a Government bailout for such businesses would be unacceptable?

The sector desperately needs urgent reform, and I hope that the Government will do what they have promised: bring forward a plan—this time with proper public oversight—based on open and good governance, one that really does provide care from the cradle to the grave.