Taking Action – What to Do If Your Care Home is Being Closed Down

Care homes are a vital resource for families with elderly relatives with special needs that cannot be taken care of at home. But they are also businesses, and businesses can fail or close for a wide range of reasons. The good news is that usually the closure of a care home is a slow and sometimes reversible process: here is some advice and information to bear in mind if your care home is under threat of closure.  

Care Homes and LAs 

Local authorities have a strong working partnership with all the care homes in the region, and will usually work with the care home owner to ensure that they are financially viable and legally compliant. The closure of any home within the local authority will require a great number of local authority workers to get involved with ensuring that all the residents are moved safely to an appropriate place, and that their families are informed and reasonably happy with the whole process – something that is not as easy and straight-forward as it sounds! This means that local authorities will usually work very hard to help keep homes in good working order and safe places for elderly residents to reside, such as in these beautiful Somerset care homes here.  

Check CQC Reports 

When you are advised that your local care home is to be closed down, the first thing you should do is check the public Care Quality Commission records about that home. Depending on what you find in those reports as the reason behind the closures, there are steps you can take to ensure the care home remains open: 

• Closing due to poor management: A new manager can be found and a deal struck with the existing owner to pass over all the assets and titles etc – if they are willing to do so.
   
• Closing due to poor staffing/ problematic staffing: Recruitment drives with the promise of better pay or improved perks can draw a higher calibre of staff to the home. This will take advertising, increased funding and may take a bit of time to find and contract the best possible staff for the home.
   
• Closing due to the owner’s retirement: Perhaps the owner wanted to run the care home until it was time for them to move into it themselves, but their circumstances have changed and they now want to sell up and perhaps move abroad to be with their own children using the proceeds. As above, a new owner can be sourced if the local authority is prepared to step in and help with the transition to new ownership if necessary.
   
• Closing due to illegal practices: This one might be a little trickier to overcome, but if there is a complete reversal of all the problematic practices, dismissal (or criminal charges pressed , if necessary) of those responsible for the legal breaches, as well as a long period of being in ‘special measures’ with a lot of oversight from the CQC and the LA, then there is no reason why the home might not ultimately be saved. 

 Speak to the Press 

If you have investigated and found that there is no good reason for the closure, and that there is sufficient staff (appropriately trained) to keep running the business, then you can always take the matter to the Press and get them to ask the awkward questions, such as why is this home closing when it is needed? Who gets the money from the sale or break-up of the company? And what will be done with the site once the care home is removed? If a developer is trying to snatch up a care home – usually a large building set into a decent-sized garden – this spotlight scrutiny will often send them back into the background, or off to find a more amenable owner of a less necessary service. 

It is possible to save your care home – but it might be a lengthy and time-consuming campaign, so it is best to find a group of like-minded people to work with you on the project.