Number of council-run care home beds declines 

Research by the BBC has revealed that more than 600 council-run care home places have been lost in Wales over the last five years and forecasts are that the trend will continue.

The figures, obtained by BBC Radio Cymru’s Post Cyntaf programme, show one in five beds have been cut in the past five years as local councils close residential homes and opt for care delivered to residents in their own home or in private sector care accommodation.

Trend towards care at home and in private sector accommodation set to continue

Mark Drakeford, chair of the Welsh assembly’s Health and Social Care Committee, said the transfer of care to private sector providers was a long-term trend that had been going on for 10 years or more, and was expected to carry on into the next decade, but he added that "on the whole it’s not necessarily bad news".

"Local authorities have invested money into creating services that allow people to stay at home for longer, where on the whole, we think people prefer to be."

He said local authorities had "diversified into other forms of residential care" and moved away from the traditional residential care home set-up.

"I think it is important to maintain a diversity within the residential care market. The fact the local authority may not have any homes under its direct control may not mean that there are not choices for people.

"There may be homes in the private sector and in the not-for-profit sector, as well, but it is important that every local authority takes careful steps to manage the market in their own area."

He said money was not the "key driver" behind the changes in social care, insisting people preferred to remain in their own homes.

"We have an ageing population so the age in which someone enters a residential care home is quite different to what it would have been half a century, a quarter of a century, ago," he added.

More on this story: bbc.co.uk/wales/news