CQC fears Allied Healthcare will cease operations in December

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has warned councils that the home care operator Allied Healthcare may cease to operate beyond 30 November.

Allied Healthcare offers home care to 9,300 people across 84 councils but on 5 November the CQC wrote to the 84 local authorities to alert them of a “credible risk of service disruption” to domiciliary care services offered by the care provider.

'Credible risk of disruption'

Andrea Sutcliffe, chief inspector of adult social care at the CQC said: “Allied Healthcare has been able to confirm funding until 30 November 2018.

"However, we have not received adequate assurance that the company has, or will have, the ongoing funding or new investment necessary to ensure the business can operate beyond this date.

“We have encouraged Allied Healthcare to provide us with a realistic financially backed plan to support the future sustainability of the business, and given them every opportunity to do so, but they have failed to provide adequate assurance regarding future funding."

Allied Healthcare announced its intention to apply for a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) last April to restructure its debts.

Through CQC’s Market Oversight function, Ms Sutcliffe said the care regulator had been “closely monitoring the situation and assessing the future viability of the company’s plans to determine whether continuity of care can be maintained".

The chief inspector added: "It is now CQC’s legal duty to notify those local authorities where Allied Healthcare is contracted to deliver home care services, that we consider there to be a credible risk of service disruption. We are doing this now to give local authorities as much time as possible to plan for maintaining continuity of care for people relying upon services from this provider, should this be required.

"Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure continuity of care for everyone using an adult social care service in the event that it ceases to operate."

“I understand this is a very unsettling time for everyone who uses Allied Healthcare’s services, their families and loved ones, and staff. It is of course possible that the company is able to avoid service disruption, and if that is the case, we will revise our position accordingly."

Allied Healthcare: ‘Premature and unwarranted’

A spokesman for Allied Healthcare said: “We are surprised and deeply disappointed by CQC Market Oversight’s decision, which we regard as premature and unwarranted.

“We have demonstrated throughout our discussions with the regulator that Allied Healthcare’s operations are sustainable and safe, that we have secured a potential replacement of our credit facility, that there is no risk to continuity of care, and that we have a long-term business plan in place that will continue to deliver quality care across the UK.

“The CQC has disregarded these assurances in spite of the robust evidence we have provided. “By issuing a Stage 6 notification, the CQC is putting significant pressure on already stretched and pressurised local authorities and clinical commissioning groups.”

’Unsurprising’

While the CQC’s annual State of Care report recently highlighted the trend of home care operators handing back contracts to councils because they can no longer afford to honour them, Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK has said: “Given the fragile state of the care market today’s news is unsurprising.

“It’s bad enough when a care home operator gets into trouble but in some ways it is worse still when this happens with home care, because the population of those in need is highly dispersed and the risk of overlooking a vulnerable older person is greater."

Simon Bottery, senior fellow at The King’s Fund, said "Allied Healthcare are not the only major care provider experiencing financial problems. Their difficulties are yet another wake-up call to the huge problems in social care. The government’s forthcoming social care green paper cannot shy away from fundamental reform of a system that is patently not working.”