Healthcare Vital Signs

With many of the larger national social care corporates struggling to reach much beyond Bristol and Bath, it remains a hugely fragmented market and a good number of quality regional operators have developed and grown over recent years. The opportunity for consolidation is rearing its head in the South-West. The fee profile is mixed with some areas seeing very high private fees almost comparable to those seen in the South-East whilst others are solely reliant upon funded fees. Staffing has been an issue as has been commonly seen across the country and those older homes struggling with fee levels in areas where availability of staff has been an issue have really struggled to make ends meet. As is occurring across much of the UK, smaller homes are focussing on residential care as a means of removing the burden of qualified staff. Development of new settings has been slower than in the South -East, with most development being in the form of extensions and reconfigurations of existing stock and we do not see this as a negative factor in the main. Firstly, the lack of new builds gives the existing assets an inherently defensive position and secondly those existing assets which improve themselves through extension and reconfiguration find that they are rising to the top of the regional market. That being said, this position may not ensure the long run. CARE HOMES THE SOUTH-WEST MARKET 32 | CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD