Established care homes in Wales should be looking to expand or build satellite facilities to help meet the growing demand for places, Mario Kreft MBE, chairman of Care Forum Wales has said.

Speaking recently to Rob Kinsman, regional director of care at Christie & Co, Kreft said that, with plans to increase National Insurance contributions set to impact care home businesses, growth in the sector will likely come from existing operators.

This is compounded by a report published by Christie & Co last year, which revealed that, by 2034, there will be a shortfall of over 9,000 beds in the sector in Wales.

Kreft said: “We’ve seen, since COVID, building costs have skyrocketed for all building, and therefore we’re going to have to find a way to increase these beds.

If you’re dealing with something that is primarily going to be publicly funded, you can’t just sit there and complain all the time. You’ve got to go out, you’ve got to do something about it

“One of the ways I think would be very sensible is to stimulate the market in such a way that those people in communities are encouraged and incentivised to expand those services, because if you’ve already got a service, you might have 30, 40 beds, well, what’s wrong with another 20?

“Because that’s where these places are, and that’s where they need to be. And you’ve got your workforce and that’s a key issue.

“We’ve got very, very good care homes providing excellent services. So, surely, if we could incentivise providers who want to support their communities to either extend, or even build in the locality, we need to keep those services close to where people want to live, in the communities they want to live in, where possible, with the culture and the language that they’re used to.”

One of the ways I think would be very sensible is to stimulate the market in such a way that those people in communities are encouraged and incentivised to expand those services, because if you’ve already got a service, you might have 30, 40 beds, well, what’s wrong with another 20?

He cited an example of an existing operator who ‘borrowed a lot of money’ and increased its beds by 50%.

He said: “It was a very-expensive way to do it, because of the build, but what that has provided has been a fantastic community-based service.

“Nobody would actually put a care home there – the council wouldn’t build there – and otherwise, people in that community would have to travel possibly an hour in either direction to find a service.

“Why would we do that when we can find a cleverer way of doing it?”

He added: “The things that appear to be in the pipeline are shelved because the fees don’t make any sense post-COVID for building costs, but we know that demand is soaring.

“It’s about common ground.

“If you’re dealing with something that is primarily going to be publicly funded, you can’t just sit there and complain all the time. You’ve got to go out, you’ve got to do something about it.”