FlyTheNest

Privately run nursing home chains face being cut out of a radical shake-up of social care in England to prevent taxpayers’ money being used to subsidise the profits of private equity.

On Wednesday Andy Burnham will pledge to put “everything he’s got” behind reforming social care and create a new national care service modelled on the NHS.

He has invited Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, and Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrats leader, to a meeting on Wednesday morning on creating a new funding model that would provide elderly people with free nursing care at the point of need, rather than leaving them to face ruinous bills that average about £80,000 a year. Nigel Farage of Reform UK was not invited to the meeting.

The Times understands that the prime minister is reluctant to allow the new service to be operated by large private sector providers for profit and wants to base the model around community-led services run by charities, local authorities and not-for-profit companies.

“He is coming at this from the principle that he does not want to see private sector firms making large profits over the provision of a vital public service,” a senior government source said. “The model is going to be more like the NHS or the Live Well scheme he pioneered in Manchester rather than the system we have at the moment.”

Last year Wales passed a law to ban private profit from children’s social care, meaning that from 2030 councils will not be able to put children in placements run by operators set up to make a profit.

free nursing care at the point of need

If you don't meet the criteria for NHS continuing healthcare, but need nursing care, the NHS pays a contribution towards the cost of the nursing care directly to the nursing home.