Comment from Mike Parish, Chief Executive, Care UK

Company news

Jun 01, 2011

Mike Parish said: “It’s undeniable that the news relating to Southern Cross’ financial difficulties and the disgraceful events at a Castlebeck home are deeply distressing. However, these are not at all typical of care providers whether public, private or charitable, who generally provide outstanding quality of care.

“It’s very upsetting for the millions of people that work in care to have their sector publicised in this way. They devote their lives to their profession and provide unstinting compassion for the people they care for.

“At Care UK, we take our responsibilities for our service users, patients and staff very seriously. We are entrusted with the ultimate responsibility of caring for vulnerable people and so we make sure that quality of care and corporate stability are the cornerstones of everything that we do.”

Care UK invests in specialist and innovative training, extensive supervision and independent clinical governance. It has retained ownership of the majority of its property freeholds, providing resilience to changes in occupancy and price pressure.

Parish argues that this commitment to quality and prudence is in itself an investment:

“Investing in the skills of our staff and in our quality controls makes a difference to our customers and to our staff. Our service users and customers appreciate our sector leading quality ratings and this is reflected in our occupancy levels. Moreover, developing a deeper understanding of the needs of those we care for reduces challenging behaviours, and this makes for a more rewarding working experience for our staff.”

Care UK’s quality ratings, as assessed independently by the Care Quality Commission, places it at the top end of the industry, with virtually all its services being rated good or excellent. Everyone that works at Care UK shares a clearly articulated set of values; arrangements for ‘whistle blowing’ and complaint handling are treated with the utmost seriousness; and every employee is invited to contact the Chief Executive directly with any concerns or suggestions.

The results speak for themselves: Care UK is profitable and was recently acquired by Bridgepoint Capital.

Parish goes on to comment:

“Our Board and our investors are absolutely focussed on quality of service and financial prudence as the drivers of long term value creation. We’ve maintained double digit annual growth rates for over two decades and we expect to continue doing so for many years to come. We can only achieve this by maintaining the quality of our care and thereby the trust and confidence of our service users, patients, customers and staff.”