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Suffolk: Care homes could turn away council residents

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Care facts:

Suffolk County Council currently funds about 2,300 people in private residential homes.

The county has 476 residents in its own homes, which are due to be sold to Care UK.

The county currently pays for about 40% of the care home places in Suffolk

http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk_care_homes_could_turn_away_council_residents_1_1378547


This is the shape of things to come.

Watch out for Care UK - be aware of Care UK - then, beware of Care UK.

You have been warned.

Is Care UK the same organisation as CARE and Self Unlimited please? I've been Googling and am thoroughly confused.

Don't know anything about Care and Self Unlimited, Okeycokey. Never heard of them - have you got a link?

But 'self' is all that CARE UK cares about!! (I would say that wouldn't I!!!)

This is Care UK: http://www.careuk.com/

It pains me to post that link because I despise Care UK with all my might, so please don't see it as advertising in the best interests of them.

I have many more links about Care UK that will give you a full picture of their outfit. If you're interested, I'll dig them out.

There's a link to their latest efforts in the 'self interest' department that I was going to post today with additional comment, but for the time being I'll just stick it here:

http://www.activequote.com/health-insurance/news/Private-hospital-providers-are-chasing-self-pay-patients.aspx

The only thing Care UK cares about is money.

Still not sure. The Websites have a similar look, despite the rebrand of CARE in 2008 to Self Unlimited.

www.selfunlimited.co.uk/about-our-charity/history-of-the-charity/

That's the one I just found about Self Unlimited. A charity.

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/SIR/ENDS58/0000250058_SIR_20110331_E.PDF

Not one of the names of the Trustees rings any bells with me - and I've done a fair bit of homework on Care UK over the years. The majority of addresses connected with Care UK HQ are all Colchester, but their fallen empire spreads far and wide. (They may resemble Southern Cross in a few years - so great are their dealings with assorted undesirables.)

http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/Showcharity/RegisterOfCharities/ContactAndTrustees.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=250058&SubsidiaryNumber=0

So I'd be very surprised if there was any connection between the two. The use of red and blue on their websites is the only thing I can see. Or am I missing something, Okeycokey?

The words 'charity' and 'Care UK' don't sit comfortably side-by-side normally.

Thank you Kermit. They don't seem connected, mercifully.

Hello Kermit an Okey Cokey,

No as far as I can tell there is no connection between the two.

I have spent the last four days on and off exploring the high finance of the care home industry and it looks to me like we have got one serious situation. Its melt-down. Southern Cross and Four Seasons are but the start. From research I have gathered Care UK are on the same course.
The financial policies they are using are the same that both Southern Cross and Four Seasons used.
Already the same pattern is happening all over again. John Nash; the big fat cat of Care UK has gone,taking a nice pile of money with him. Another important guy on the board of 2009 has gone.
Its almost a new board now. They are buying up other small groups.

Many other small groups are in trouble. And even BUPA is talking about a over-all crisis in the care industry.

Am about to put a important article on this financial aspect of care homes and how this relates to care home neglect which beyond a doubt is by far a more massive problem than abuse is, and its going to get much worse I am sorry to say. Have come across worrying figures for deaths in care homes almost certainly due to neglect for the years 2004-2009 which added to those caused by anti-psychotic drug misuse paints a bleak picture.

There definitely is no charity where Care UK is; the owners dont know the meaning of the word; nor the word compassion.

Very kind regards lachatte

Hello Kermit,

This should be of great interest to you concerning Care UK.

Looking through its accounts it is not surprising that Care Uk which was bought by private equity firm Bridgepoint in May 2010 is worried.

The company, has already slipped from profit to loss since it was bought, largely due to the 9.75 percent interest payments it has to pay on the £250 million bond Bridgepoint had to issue to afford the acquisition.

Care UKs annual accounts show that when Bridgepoint bought the company it immediately created another company called Silver Seas Holdings.
Silver Sea will build and own care homes, and then " enter into agreement for lease and development with Care UK "
In order words instead of owning and managing the care homes itself, Care UK will rent them from the newly established Silver Sea.

This is exactly what occurred with Southern Cross and Blackstone and Four Seasons.
Its the same thing, nothing but fast burn investment. Or cut and run when your pockets are full.

Very kind regards lachatte

La chatte, you are absolutely spot on with your research of Care UK. You are showing signs of obsession about CUK similar to my own - but with good reason.

Corporate Watch (22 December 2011) tells the story: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4138

'The advantage of splitting into separate companies is that they will be easier and more profitable for Bridgepoint to sell: the homes can be sold to property companies that would not be interested in buying a large healthcare provider, for example. But the danger is that whoever buys Silver Sea can then raise the rents, increasing the pressure on Care UK's finances and its capacity to provide adequate care, especially if it continues to carry huge amounts of debt.'

I think CUK's 'average' charge for residential care was something like £700 per week - and that's just an average - with the majority of their beds then being under long-term contract with local authorities. CUK announced a while ago that it was CUK's intention to concentrate their future developments on residential care for self-funders with dementia. Surely they couldn't have had insider information about the creeping privatisation of the NHS alongside the demolition of care services arranged and funded by local authorities, could they????

It will forever remain a puzzle for me to understand why 'some' local authorities that I know well arranged 25-year contracts with CUK to provide residential care.

The shape of things to come.

Hello Kermit,

Your analysis of Care UK is spot on too. I dont know as much about Bridgepoint as I do about Blackstone. But they definitely are not in Blackstones league.

It is puzzling why local authorities would place that length of contract with them. I personally doubt very much if they will be operating in say five years let alone 25 years.

They are already crippled by debt and it would make sense on the part of Care UK to try to make this type of contract..


I have seen BUPAs comments on the importance of filling empty beds in their care homes in order to survive. Southern Cross was only operating on 86 percent full. The level of their debt was so great even that figure cant save them.

The main care providers have been taken for a ride by private equity investiment firms. Skinned good and proper. Local authorities havent the expertise to try to play games with people like this.

The New Health Bill has open the way for worse to come. All this talk of choice for patients is total rubbish. Its a open invite yet again for the fast burn invester/equity firms to make even more vast sums of money. They will be lining themselves up outside the NHS for their turn.
Its madness. Economics should be part of psychology because it is ruled by thought much of it not based on reality; delusional systems of belief prevail.
Very kind regards lachatte