Exclusive: Investigation finds huge sums of taxpayers’ money spent on poor quality private homes
Taxpayers have spent close to half a billion pounds buying beds in the worst care homes in England in the last four years, driving profits for private investors while residents suffer unsafe treatment, a Guardian investigation has revealed.
In what one affected family branded “a robbery of taxpayers’ money” and Labour said was “scandalous”, about £480m is estimated to have been spent on “inadequate” care homes – many rated unsafe and in special measures, meaning they are threatened with closure. They are often staffed by untrained agency workers ignoring residents’ needs and failing to deliver proper nutrition and medicines in dirty and dangerous properties.
Liverpool city council paid £1.5m for places at an “inadequate” home where stains encrusted furniture, walls and floors, fire doors were defective and addictive controlled drugs weren’t signed out properly. Care Quality Commission inspectors found it was “not safe” with “significant staff shortages”.
Derbyshire county council spent £1m with a home where assaults were not investigated, doses of medicines were missed and there were not enough trained staff, the CQC found.
A care home where under-trained care workers were seen yanking people out of their seats by their waistbands, one resident was “frightened to look at staff” and care was “humiliating” received £1.3m from Portsmouth city council.
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