A short-staffed care home for people with learning disabilities in Kent gave families less than ten hours’ notice to rehome loved ones, reports The Guardian.
Berkeley House in Kent looked after adults with severe learning difficulties and autism. Its operator decided five weeks ago it could no longer operate and told families they would have 28 days’ notice of the closure date. It then gave notice at 7.30 in the morning that residents would need to be out by 5pm on the day in question.
Berkley House’s operator is Achieve Together, which is owned, via a chain of companies, by a company registered in Jersey. The parent company of the Jersey company is AMP Capital, an Australian global investment management company.
DR UK CEO Kamran Mallick said: “It is an almost inevitable outcome that when social care is viewed as a for-profit enterprise rather than a well-funded, basic human right for people too often denied dignity and high quality care, that corners will be cut, staff will refuse to work within a toxic culture for minimum wage, and companies will see people as assets and commodities as things to be ditched quickly like poor performing FTSE stock. What has happened at Berkley House is appalling. The Government must ensure that frameworks are in place to put people, not profit, at the heart of social care solutions.”
There are currently 100,000 social care staff vacancies in England. 60,000 workers quit the profession between April and October of this year.