Charities are being forced to ‘evict’ adults in their care to stay solvent, research has found

Charities that provide specialist care to thousands of vulnerable adults with learning disabilities and severe autism are having to ‘evict’ residents to avoid insolvency due to tax and wage rises and cuts to local authority funding.

Nonprofits say their work is in a “state of acute uncertainty,” with many preparing to cut services, close doors to new residents and effectively evict tenants because the costs the city is paying cover the costs of healthcare for longer.

The warning comes as concerns grow that the Government, which a fortnight ago announced a three-year review of social care under Lady Casey, is not acting quickly enough to prevent a worsening crisis in the sector.

The annual Sector Pulse Check survey of more than 200 social care providers, both private and charities, shows that many are on the brink as they struggle to remain viable in the face of councils’ refusal or inability to to cover rising costs of services. .

It says charities are increasingly having to threaten to relinquish contracts – effectively evicting individuals in residential care – to force councils to pay the full cost of specialist services. More than half of charity care providers returned contracts last year.

A charity has described how the 80-year-old mother of one of its residents with complex learning difficulties and autism burst into tears and was under stress for weeks as council cuts meant a ‘home for life’ for her 60-year-old son – who lived there had. had been with the charity for 47 years – was in danger.

“In the end we were not evicted. It has cost us, but we are a decent organization,” says Stephen Veevers, general manager of the specialized healthcare provider HFT. “It would have been devastating and life-changing for those involved. These kinds of things are going to happen all over the country, day in and day out.”

Sean Timbrell, the director of Stroud Court community trust in Gloucestershire, a charity that provides specialist residential care for autistic adults, accused some councils of passing the buck and failing to meet their legal responsibilities.

“The impact on residents is devastating,” he said. “We can no longer subsidize personalized activities, and with residents only having £30 a week for personal expenses, many are losing opportunities for joy and growth.”

Many specialist adult social care charities were established in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s by parents of severely autistic children and children with learning difficulties, as they were frustrated that outdated institutional services were not meeting their care and support needs.

Veevers said he was concerned the charity model of healthcare was under threat. “The risk is that it will fail, and we will go back to the ‘warehousing’ approach of the 1950s. You will see an increase in large, private equity-backed, for-profit providers gobbling up contracts because they will be the only people left in the game.”

The Sector Pulse Check survey shows that specialist social care charities are much more likely than private for-profit organizations to face financial difficulties because they are almost entirely dependent on council funding. “The liquidity of non-profit providers in particular becomes so difficult that services are substantially affected,” the report says.

Many charities were blindsided by the chancellor’s decision to increase employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs) from April, a move estimated to add £2.8 billion to costs for Britain’s 18,000 social care providers. This was in addition to the additional costs incurred by increases in the “national living wage”.

Social health charities are seeking an exemption from the NIC increases, arguing that, like voluntary hospices, which have received financial support from the government, and the NHS, which is exempt, they are effectively public services.

Keir Starmer wrote to charities last week saying he was “proud of the way we have worked with civil society over the last six months and everything you have helped us achieve”, and promised a closer partnership with the voluntary sector to support efforts of Labour. missions.

Charity leaders have received the Prime Minister’s letter coolly, pointing out the gap between the government’s rhetorical support and its inability to properly fund social care. A charity boss said they were “spewing feathers” after reading the letter.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “The Casey Commission will work to build consensus on the future of adult social care that is fair and affordable. The first report will be published next year and will set out the immediate action this Government must take to lay the foundations for a National Care Service.”