Three quarters of adult care homes in Wales are run for profit, report confirms
Martin Shipton
A new report showing that 75% of identified adult care home places in Wales are run by for-profit providers, and that the only significant growth in supply of care home places is coming from private investment firms, should be a wake-up call for politicians and council leaders, it has been said.
The report, from TUC Cymru and the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR), titled “People in Cymru expect better for their communities”, examines the ownership of adult care home services across Wales. It found that in 2025 for-profit providers supplied 75% of identified adult care home places. Investment firm-owned providers supplied 17% of places, a larger share than local government, which supplied 14% of places, Other not-for-profit providers supplied 11% of care places.
In raw number terms, there were 15,462 places in total, of which 2,689 were supplied by investment firm-owned providers; 8,858 by other for-profit providers; 2,224 by local government; and 1,691 by other not-for-profit organisations.
TUC Cymru and Unison say the figures show too much public money meant for care is being taken out of the system by private companies and investors, instead of being spent on care workers, residents and better services.
The report warns that care quality can suffer where services are driven by profit, and that staff in privately run care homes are often under greater pressure. Care workers, including care assistants, support workers and domestic staff, are already having to cope with low pay, high workloads and rising demand.
The report also finds that between 2020 and 2025 there was a 34% fall in not-for-profit provision, with not-for-profit providers shrinking from 16% to 10.9% of provision over the same period.
The largest 30 care home providers across Wales control 35% of all places. As many as 75% of these places are from for-profit companies. Investment firms, typically owned by private equity, supply 22% of the top thirty’s supply. By comparison, local government makes up only 15% of the top thirty’s supply. This means that investment firms own more of our social care than local government.
TUC Cymru and Unison are calling on the Welsh Government to extend its commitment to remove profit from children’s care to all forms of social care, including adult care homes. They say councils should also be given greater support to provide care directly, with stronger transparency over who owns care companies and care home properties.
For this trend to change, there must be interventions, as lessons learned from other parts of the UK and across the world show.
Amber Courtney, Head of Policy at TUC Cymru, said: “Private social care providers in Cymru are no longer predominantly smaller homes rooted in the community. Instead, big global players have become increasingly involved.
“There is now strong evidence that workers in privately operated care homes are often paid less, with care quality suffering, and profit extracted from public money to benefit owners and offshore investors.
“Removing profit would mean public money is invested solely for public benefit. Without a change, social care is going to get ever more expensive for us all.”
Jess Turner, Unison Cymru Secretary, said: “This report highlights once again that the adult social care system in Cymru is heading in the wrong direction.
“Care workers are calling on the new Welsh Government to take the opportunity to complete the job of removing profit from all care.
“Public services should be delivered for the public benefit, by well-paid workers working in the public interest.”
Suffer
Vivek Kotecha, the researcher who wrote the report, said: “CICTAR has carried out research into private care companies across the UK and around the globe, and the trends are very clear. When care is treated as an opportunity to make money it is care workers, and our loved ones that they care for, that suffer while others become rich.
“With the only significant growth in the supply of care home places in Wales over the last five years coming from global investment firms, the government urgently needs to change the direction of travel before it is too late.”
A spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: “We remain committed to our long-term ambition of moving towards social care that is free at the point of need.
“Our focus is on delivering practical and sustainable improvements that strengthen the system now, including greater integration between health and social care, improving national consistency through the National Office for Care and Support, and supporting fair pay and sustainable models of care.”
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Care homes should not run at a loss but definitely not “for profit”. Some greedy owners will cut corners at every opportunity and not give residents the care they deserve in their twilight years.
I can’t think of a better sector that needed a cooperative business model.
I also don’t think everything needs Welsh government leadership. Can do it ourselves if willing and more dynamic
Why hasn’t it already happened?
There needs to be a cross party solution to this at UK level. It cannot be done without the private sector as the cost to the state would be too great. It’s a problem that we desperately need to solve as it affects us all.
Why a UK level? It’s a devolved issue. It’s WG responsibility. And seeing the last two governments have shown little interest in addressing the future challenges, and the vast majority of care homes are private operators, maybe it’s time the public should take a lead. As you say it affects us all!
In any case, the current government can’t get a supplementary budget through, let alone plan a major overhaul in social care
I would say because it affects the whole of the UK, we have open borders between the countries, Wales has more older people, opportunities to save money via joint procurement of equipment (buying at scale etc) etc.
Well education, health, economic development also affects the whole UK also, but they are devolved.
We just had a Senedd election. Social care barely discussed. Plaid announced their legislative plan yesterday. To my knowledge, nothing on social care.
You’re welcome to convince me otherwise, but it’s a devolved responsibility and our devolved government doesn’t seem too fussed by it
And can the report tell us how many of these so called ‘care homes’ syphon money away to England?
It’s the foreign/non-UK ownership that should worry you. Increasingly care homes are being bought by pension, wealth funds etc. Just like Thames Water was!