CONCERNS remain about the ability to provide care at home across Gwent as providers are unable to meet demand. 

A report has said while the situation facing domiciliary care is “critical” the situation for residential care homes is “stable” but the councillor responsible for care in one Gwent authority says he has concerns for that sector in the longer term as well. 

Last month the Llanyravon Court home, in Cwmbran, had to close after inspectors removed it from the register due to failings in the care provided, and management of the nursing home, were found. 

Councillor David Daniels, the cabinet member for adult services on Torfaen County Borough Council, said the reliance on private sector care homes is a “risk” and said having to move was a “trauma” for residents. 

He said: “This is a failing of the private sector they have to derive a profit to keep going.” 

He warned that an increase in demand for domiciliary care, in part driven by more people wanting to stay at home, would mean those moving into nursing homes will require more complex care. 

“That will require more intensive support for those individuals. Whilst profit is a factor it is a risk care homes will leave the market and it makes me very uncomfortable.” 

Torfaen’s care chief, Jason O’Brien, told councillors that care home vacancies across Gwent are at eight per cent but hospital discharges throughout the winter could reduce that. 

The council was updated on the “market stability” of the care sector across Gwent at its Tuesday, December 6 meeting with a report prepared on behalf of the five county councils and the local health board that form the regional partnership and which commission care from 106 homes and 109 domiciliary care providers for older adults. 

It stated the local residential care home market is “generally stable, although Gwent currently has elevated vacancies”, but those are expected to return to the levels they were previously at before the Covid pandemic when vacancies increased. Most providers require at least 90 per cent occupancy to remain financially viable. 

In domiciliary care staffing shortages and the impact of the pandemic mean the service is at “critical levels and at times unable to fully meet demand”. 

As was previously reported to a council scrutiny committee in October there is concern at the number of packages of care that are returned to commissioners, – over 70 providers returning more than 950 weekly hours per week. This causes commissioners to prioritise the most vulnerable citizens with complex needs. 

The cost-of-living crisis, and particular rising fuel costs, is also resulting in low paid care staff finding better paid employment, a point acknowledged by Cllr Daniels. 

He said: “While a care job pays the same, or less, as retail it’s nonsensical for us to expect people to take that financial hit, especially with a cost of living crisis. 

“It is an incredibly testing job, a skilled job and it should pay as a skilled job.” 

Cllr Daniels, who in October said he believed care needed to be removed from the private sector, said: “I can’t see a way forward other than ultimately getting care out of the private sector. It’s very difficult how we do that and is probably beyond our means as a council.” 

Such a move, Cllr Daniels said, would likely require work on a regional level or on a Wales wide basis. 

The report also highlighted pressures on mental health services for adults and children, with waiting times for Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHs) increasing. 

It is also becoming increasingly difficult to find places for people with complex learning difficulties closer to home making that a “growing commissioning issue” while children’s services are currently “insufficient to meet the needs of the region in terms of residential services and foster placements”. 

A lack of appropriate residential services means children are having to be placed in expensive out of county placements and work is taking place across the region to address this.