…number of care homes. That’s the warning from the head of the Parklands Group which runs 11 facilities here.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/live/bbcone
Headlining on BBC Scotland today another story to fuel the opposition attacks on the Scottish Government plans for care.
We then heard from the Head of the Parklands Group that closures were due to rising costs making businesses unsustainable.
As always, apparently no research done by the many little researchers working at Pacific Quay.
Fact 1:
Around 200 care homes have closed in Scotland since 2012 and the number of available spaces has contracted by an estimated 2,000.
So, on average, fewer than 20 closing and fewer than 200 places being lost each year. Frightening, not?
Fact 2:
The estimated percentage occupancy [of care homes] at 31 March 2021 was 82%, compared with 88% on 31 March 2011.
Care homes are closing because there is less demand for them. More are being cared for at home. The number of care at home hours increased from 632 160 in 2010 to 733 505 in 2021:
Fact 3:
While I cannot find details of the profits made by Parklands Group, research published by the STUC in 2022 – Profiting from Care: Why Scotland Can’t Afford Privatised Social Care – is clear. In the private sector, income is used to generate profits and director’s fees while paying staff less, providing fewer resources and getting more complaints than not-for profit providers.
Parklands Group has trouble recruiting staff as evidenced by a 2022 petition in Ullapool to stop them taking over a local care home (Ross-shire Journal link below).
Fact 4:
Covid pandemic death rates were higher in private care homes which made greater use of agency staff and did not offer sick pay than in not-for-profit providers.
Sources:
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
An excellent piece of rapid response debunking.
BBC Scotland (and the Morning Star) gives regular, uncritical platforms for private care home owners to attack the Scottish Government.
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I’ll do it like that
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I’ll do it like that
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Perhaps the lack of cheap labour from Europe after the Brexit vote has a part to play in the hit on profits ?
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Through the Companies House website, we can read Parklands Limited’s ‘Annual Report and group financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2022’. The details of profitability in 2022 and 2021 can be found – very much healthier in 2022 – but in the context of the BBC Scotland coverage, the following extracts from the report are perhaps even more ‘interesting’:
‘The Directors are very satisfied with the trading results’
‘Occupancy remains high …’
‘wages and salaries have remained constant’
‘Our average weekly fee is … significantly ahead of industry statistics.’
‘The main risks to the group are a fall in occupancy and increased interest rates.’
But: ‘Resident referrals have remained very high with no notable drop in admissions.’
‘The Group expanded in 2022 with the addition of an existing care home …. ‘ and also by the ‘purchase of two existing homes … during 2023’.
So ‘very satisfied with trading’, turnover up, profits up, wage costs level, occupancy rates high, weekly fees above industry norms – presumably all leading to the owners’ decision to invest in expanding their portfolio of homes by three in a c. 12 month period!
Are BBC Scotland’s journalists incapable of exerting any critical evaluation? Of course not, so Is it the mission they are pursuing, to gaslight Scotland for a political end, that is all encompassing?
Finding out this stuff about the status of Parklands Limited takes very little time. What matters is having the motivation not so much to ‘talk up Scotland’ in this instance but to react against the prevailing negative narratives that are delivered by BBC Scotland and others without balance, critical analysis, context or perspective.
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For further interest, given the focus of the ‘frightening” BBC Scotland news item, it’s relevant to look at Parklands Limited’s ‘gross profit margin’ i.e. the percentage of business revenue that is left once the cost of undertaking that business has been paid. It tells a business how much gross profit is made for every pound of sales revenue received. Comparing gross profit margins over time can be useful in understanding changes in a business environment – changes in underlying cost and/or changes in revenue factors.
From successive annual reports accessible via the Companies House website, we learn this about Parklands’ Gross Profit Margins:
2022 = 32.4%
2021 = 29.7%
2020 = 33.2%
2019 = 34.6%.
I’d say that begs some questions at the very least! Over to BBC Scotland!
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It’s a no brainer every time
If you have a choice between privatised and council or government run
you will always always always get a better deal for customers and employees with council or government run
The reason ? profit profit profit
It’s obvious , non profit making business will charge less money and or pay staff better leading to more money available for improvements but if government dont use that money to make improvements the council and government run will be doing the same job and providing the same service for less cost and that is what the tories and labour do in order to convince people privatisation is good .
We are seeing it with the NHS with the railways , with water services in England and wales with the Royal Mail with telephone services with tv services with electricity and gas just about everything in life that the tories and labour have privatised over the last forty years has gone to the dogs , mass profits in the pockets of the few and poorer failing unfit for purpose services .
It’s criminal negligence and those responsible should be charged with it.
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What else would you expect from Distorting Scotland after all these years ?
I’ve no idea the extent to which Ron Taylor willingly went along with this, was coerced into it by the “loadsamoney if you vote Tory” initiative from London, as some favour to the reprehensible DRoss still masquerading as politician, or how much of it was left on the cutting-room floor to pull off a homage to the Nick Robinson “he said nothing..” scam..
In reality many highly leveraged businesses will have struggled with interest rate hikes, “inflation falling” still hammers companies in the short term let alone trying to plan 5 years ahead..
As ever with HMS James Cook, it’s about passing the buck from London to Edinburgh, ever the inference of a purely Scottish problem, bugger all to do with London – “Call Kay with an E for tax advice on 041 fuck oh fuckity fuck one hundred”…
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The lingering inference for the viewer in the BBC headline is the Scot Government is once again at fault for not raising the living wage to attract staff. It just makes you wonder Rep Scotland must have an enormous arsenal of hatchets in their War rooms just waiting to be used to attack the SNP.
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There is so much information out there to provide context, perspective and indeed a counter to BBC Scotland’s reporting.
Another source: Knight Frank (2023) UK Care Homes Trading Performance Review. (https://content.knightfrank.com/research/548/documents/en/care-homes-trading-performance-review-2023-10762.pdf )
(As an aside, is it not ‘notable’ that on the subject of care for the elderly and vulnerable, a ‘performance review’ is is being undertaken by a major REAL ESTATE consultancy?)
Some key insights from the Review (with my emphasis) : ‘We have seen the IMPROVEMENT OF MANY KPIs TRACKED, including an average occupancy level of 86.4%, up from 83.4% in 2022. AVERAGE WEEKLY FEES HAVE GROWN APPROXIMATELY 9.6% TO £1,074 per week. However, we have seen EBITDARM TRACK BACK SLIGHTLY to 25%.’ (EBITDARM: earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, rent, and management fees, a selective earnings metric employed to measure financial performance.) Does just ‘track back slightly’ at a time of high inflation not suggest a resilient business sector?
On occupancy levels: in 2022-23 homes in Scotland together with those in London had THE SECOND HIGHEST AVERAGE OCCUPANCY LEVEL after NI level. In 2021-22 the Scotland had the second highest after NI. In 2020-21 homes in Scotland had the highest levels of average occupancy of anywhere in the UK. So persistently favourable performance in Scotland on this KPI.
On average weekly fees: Scotland has the fifth highest average weekly fees in both 2022 and 2023 amongst the 12 UK nations and regions. The increase in average fees from 2022 to 2023 in Scotland is the sixth highest of the 12 nations and regions. So MID RANKING ON THIS METRIC.
In 2021-22 the hourly rate of pay for ancillary staff in Scotland was fifth highest amongst the nations and regions. Again mid ranking on this cost of doing business metric.
In 2021-22 the management staff average salary in Scotland was ABOVE THE UK AVERAGE. Only London and SE England had higher average salaries.
Property costs per bed in Scotland are fifth highest amongst the nations and regions, and lower than in Wales. This cost metric has gone up in 2023 by a similar proportion in all areas. So again mid ranking in the UK context.
Total utility costs in 2022-23 are highest in Scotland due to energy costs: ELECTRICITY COSTS ARE HIGHEST IN SCOTLAND. Why doesn’t BBC Scotland investigate why this is so?
To the question ‘Are there contingencies / support in place or available for the business to absorb current inflationary pressure? – 78% of respondents replied ‘yes’! The survey didn’t check how many found the situation – to use the term in BBC Scotland’s report – ‘frightening’! Seems like most respondents – by a huge margin – don’t!
The Review examines the level of government support by nation and region as a percentage of EBITDARM. It is is substantially higher in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK (see Figure 39). Responsibility for social care is of course devolved.
In what Frank Knight refers to as its ‘Wellbeing Index’ we learn this: ‘Statistics from the index, ONCE AGAIN, PRESENT SCOTLAND AS THE REGION WITH THE HIGHEST SCORE FOR AMENITIES’. And in its ‘quality score rank’ Frank Knight places the care home sector in Scotland second highest of any nation or region of the UK.
I suspect most normal people – including most reasonable and reasoning voters – care a lot about the nature of social care provided in Scotland. There will still be a substantial number – including those who are motivated to cast a vote in elections – that still access news from BBC Scotland. The latter’s reporting – without balance, without critical evaluation of evidence, without context, without perspective and with a willingness to amplify single sources, usually this opposed to the present Scottish Government – will exert influence. It will skew public opinion and consequently it may impact electoral outcomes.
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Or alternatively diversion to the shit hitting the fan in England…
Covid Inquiry, Care Homes, Conservatives, Capital flight…
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I see Parklands Limited is receiving attention from BBC Scotland on the BBC News website: ‘Rural areas facing ‘alarming’ care home closures’.
In the article there is this: ‘Ron Taylor, managing director of Parklands Group which owns 11 care homes in Moray and the Highlands, said costs had risen “exponentially” in the last two years and care homes were effectively having to provide “complex care on the cheap”.
I’ve set out at length relevant information on the state specifically of Parklands business based on its annual accounts. Note in the BBC article the company’s MD referring to ‘costs had risen “exponentially” in the last two years’. We don’t (of course) have the firm’s annual accounts for 2023 yet but let’s look at the numbers for the past two full years for which we have financial data.
(Remember, rising exponentially means the rise is becoming quicker and quicker over time. Not sure one can even identify an exponential rise from two years of performance IF the data are only reported annually!)
In 2022:
Turnover = £17,616,313
Cost of sales = £11,901,991: equates to 67.6% of turnover
In 2021:
Turnover = £14,234,592
Cost of sales = £10,011, 609: equates to 70.3% of turnover.
Note also the MD’s reference to ‘effectively having to provide “complex care on the cheap”. From the 2022 Annual Report (page 1) we are told: ’The group is focused on delivering high quality person centred care in homes that are SETTING NEW STANDARDS OF COMFORT AND LUXURY.’ (my emphasis)
Is this ‘focus’ possible because elsewhere in the firm’s 2022 Annual Report we learn that ‘‘Our average weekly fee is … significantly ahead of industry statistics’ AND that the firm’s ‘gross profit margin’ went up in 2022 AND that according to the 2023 Knight Frank sector review (see an earlier btl post), the sector in Scotland is performing above or similar to the median performance level on key metrics relative to the other nations and regions of the UK?
Now my intention here has not been to dispute the impact of the UK economy’s parlous state – energy costs, borrowing costs, inflation – nor the impact of Brexit on staff recruitment etc on the care sector. There are many reasons to question the efficacy of the present delivering model. My ‘beef’ is with a company whose statutory accounts give a rather different picture than the one its MD paints for BBC Scotland and it most certainly is with BBC Scotland whose reporting is devoid of any critical appraisal of this particular company’s performance in the context of what its MD is stating!
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Personal care means more elderly people can stay in their own home.
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