The owner of a care home group paid himself at least £21m in the last 5 years. He holds 100% of the share capital and in addition paid himself £18.6m in dividends.

I would kill myself rather than go into one of those horrendous places.

The problem would be at what point would you do so?

I only had a quick look at the attachment but will say what I found from my mother’s experience (she died last August.) After she fell and broke her shoulder she was discharged from hospital into a care home, paid for as ongoing care, by the NHS. It was lovely, purpose built, the staff were lovely and she was well looked after. After three months she was ready to be discharged but we all, including her, recognised that she would no longer be safe at home, even with carers going in. We looked for another home for her as the one she was in was so expensive. We found one, equally lovely, probably even nicer, where she transferred to, and the staff were extremely caring and she was looked after wonderfully well until she died. This care home £1325 a week. We looked at others but as my husband said, some of them we wouldn’t have put a dog in! Thankfully my mother was well cared for and I know this care doesn’t come cheap, but for people to take this kind of salary whilst the residents in their homes are not cared for properly is disgusting. Most likely these people are being paid for by the state too as anyone with the ability to pay would move their elderly relative. So sad.

It's disgusting, but paying yourself dividends if you have a business is quite common.

This story is horrifying. Thankfully the care homes my family members went into were all excellent and cared for their residents very well

Dividends on shares is what pays most of us that have them our occupational pensions, it is like getting interest on Building Society savings, except it can be a lot more variable.

However, there really ought to be some limit on how much can be paid out on each share each year in private companies.

Public companies have to publish accounts every year.usually have loyts of shareholders and can challenge the board of directors. Private companies, file accounts, but they come under no public scrutiny becauseusually the only shareholders are the directors and their friends and families.

Sadly, he's not the only one - although he seems to be extreme.

Another - Barchester group owned by 3 millionaires in Ireland is massive & the care basic, bordering on illegal in our local home.
- Under staffed, unsafe minimal care.

Thank goodness that the care home provider my mum went to live in operated as a not for profit company - not paying dividends to shareholder or directors but ploughing profits back into the company. They paid the staff the National living wage and had a very good staff to resident ratio.

Care homes should not be profit making businesses IMHO.

They should not, but it seems to be a licence to print money, unfortunately.

Ah but it fits with the government dogma of private enterprise and profit. We are so far down that tunnel that there is no way back.

I say again, how do we explain to the Tories what the word "service" means? They do not have a clue about humanity.

It’s a money making racket at the expense of human suffering. Card homes are money making operations. How that man sleeps at night is beyond me. Obscene amounts of money.

I love my job as a carer and I think most carers do because we certainly don’t do it for the money. Care work in a care home is getting harder and harder. We work our guts out for minimum wage being underappreciated and underpaid.
The other problem is the fact that we are having to rely on overseas workers, in my care home, we have a lot of Indians and don’t get me wrong They are lovely people they work hard they are reliable and kind, but I’m afraid their English is not up to scratch, I thought they were meant to have a certain level of English to get this job, but that’s obviously not right because we’ve just had a woman start from India she cannot form a sentence in English, the English staff struggle to understand the foreign staff, so what chance to the residents have? what do we do though? We need feet on the floor and the English are not prepared to work for that low wage. Most of our Indian workers are contracted and are here for 3 to 5 years (I am 70 next month but do only work part time)

I worked in one of his homes in my last proper job.

Yet I seem to hear of care homes going bust and their residents having to be found places in other homes.
In my experience there are care homes and care homes! Some are really nice places to live and with kind staff. My late GM was in one that seemed to our eyes to be a bit shabby but it suited Granny very well. There was consistent staffing and management.
A more recent visit to a very new flashy home was a big disappointment. Staff attitudes struck me as poor. The lady I was visiting was not happy and glad that she had an assertive daughter to fight her corner. It was very expensive too.
The home my mother was in was run as a not for profit one and was terrific. All the money ploughed back into the place and care of the residents. Needless to say it's gone now

I think it's alright for care homes and day care centres to be run as businesses. I work in one that is run on that basis – along with many other services for old people, vulnerable people and children – by a charity which is run by the Church of Scotland.

Of course, the kind of profits the article mentions are shocking. If care in some of the 60 (?) homes run by the company mentioned is inadequate, such profits are a disgrace.

It would also, in my opinion, be wrong to make taxpayers pay for it all. Where I work some people pay privately and some are paid for via the local authority.

Yet I seem to hear of care homes going bust and their residents having to be found places in other homes

They must either be badly run (lots of businesses are) or can't get the staff, I presume. There is talk of worker shortages in the news all the time.

If care homes are not run as businesses how are funds raised to pay the staff?

As this business has been exposed and standards are not being met presumably an investigation will follow; attention needs to focus on the level of care offered, obviously insufficient, in comparison with the fees being charged, then the excess profits will be challenged and fines levied.. But it is highly likely that this man will close the Homes and his business, having made his profits, and residents will be homeless.

Baggs

If care homes are not run as businesses how are funds raised to pay the staff?

They could be publicly funded, as they commonly were in the past; as the NHS still is to a great extent.

The state is the creator an issuer of our money, the ultimate source of 'money'. All that is happening with private provision is that a certain percentage of the state issued money is being taken out as 'profit' and, if it's not being spent into the economy (which wealthy people tend not to do) it's not serving any useful purpose, it's not circulating and sustaining economic activity.

Private care homes are the result of a political ideology which favours wealth acquisition by the rich, not using public money to ensure the wellbeing of the population.

It is big money and they refer to people's family members ie. their clients/patients as 'asset acquisition'

Private care homes are the result of a political ideology which favours wealth acquisition by the rich.

Do you really think that is what a Church of Scotland charity is doing, maiz?

It is businesses that generate money/wealth and the country benefits from that by taxation. Government does not generate (make) any money. Even publicly funded businesses make money by running as businesses. The problem often seems to be that when people have no personal stake in a business they (some of them) take advantage. I saw this to horrific levels in British Steel when I worked for a steeplejack and welding company in Sheffield. The waste of public money was truly shocking whereas the foremen and owners of the company I worked in would have been down on wasters like a ton of bricks steel so it rarely happened.

Most care home workers are dedicated and caring but I think it is time that care home work should be a recognised profession, with qualifications and proper salary, rather than minimum training and low wages.

Good post Baggs.

I’m not defending the inadequacies of this man’s care homes, but is no consideration given to the costs he incurred in acquiring and setting up the premises - should he not be repaid?

Having worked in the public sector I too have despaired at the waste of public money.

There is great hatred of people who make money in this country and that hatred is much in evidence on GN.

And here is the problem with social care. When you pay private companies to provide the service then you know they want to profit from them. This is crippling the country. It’s high time we had state run home and home care. It’s not good having such an important and essential service at the mercy of profit making companies. I’ve worked as a home carer and in a mental health home and I can tell you that the amount of money changing hands for unacceptable standards is breathtaking.