Havering’s care home market hit by ‘tsunami’, says director

Inflation and the cost-of-living crisis have contributed to a “tsunami” hitting Havering’s care home market, the director of adult services has said. 

However, at a meeting of Havering’s overview and scrutiny committee on October 13, Ben Campbell, commissioning programme manager, told councillors the resilience of the market meant it was “generally okay”.

While highlighting pressures on care homes, including the cost-of-living crisis and inflation, he added a “strong relationship” had been developed with providers over the years. 

In a report published ahead of the meeting, the risk that the market would collapse was deemed to be low, largely due to its size and diversity.

However, later in the session, in response to a question from Cllr David Taylor on whether the council had confidence in the level of service provided, Barbara Nicholls, director of adult services, said the environment was likely to get “extremely tricky”. 

“It’s very tricky now, and it’s going to be extremely tricky for the rest of the MTFS (Medium Term Financial Strategy),” she said. 

She has “never known anything like it, as what we have seen since the post-Covid period…in 25/26 years of social work”. 

“It’s feeling like a tsunami,” she added. 

While she said her department would continue planning to try and cope with rising costs, Ms Nicholls described the situation as “a very moving beast”.

Ms Nicholl’s comments were delivered against the backdrop of major cost-cutting exercises being proposed by council in its budget consultation, as Havering looks to make £70 million in savings over the next four years. 

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