When care providers acquire new homes maintaining continuity is critical, though speed must never come at the expense of safe and compliant care delivery.
This article was written by Toby Gavin, Director at We Are Care
The compliance challenge in provider transitions
Recent experience in supporting a provider through acquisition highlighted a significant issue within the agency care sector. When assessing an existing agency workforce supporting newly acquired homes, 80% of staff were found to be non-compliant with fundamental care requirements.
This included gaps in mandatory training, incomplete DBS checks, missing right to work verification, or outdated professional registration. Or, in fact, because the employers they had done the training with would not provide the certificates – an area that is worthy of another discussion.
This compliance deficit is not unique to individual agencies or regions. Across the sector, the pressure to fill shifts can lead to documentation being incomplete and essential training being deferred. For acquiring providers, inheriting this gap presents considerable risk. The Care Quality Commission does not pause its oversight during ownership transitions, and residents and families expect consistent standards of safe, professional care.
The challenge becomes acute when timescales are compressed. In the case referenced, 550 care hours needed to be filled across multiple homes within days of acquisition. The requirement was not simply to find available staff, but to ensure that every person deployed met full compliance standards before beginning work.
The economics of compliance
The prevalence of non-compliance in agency care is not disconnected from the sector’s economic realities. Some care agencies operate on flat rates as low as £16.00 per hour. When national minimum wage, pension contributions, and National Insurance are factored in, the margin can be as narrow as £0.27 per hour.
This is not a viable business model for delivering quality, compliant care. I am open to being convinced it is. At such margins, there is simply insufficient resource to invest in robust training programmes, maintain comprehensive compliance systems, or employ the administrative staff needed to keep documentation current.
If agencies are surviving on these rates, it raises questions about what might be compromised. It seems reasonable to suspect that training and compliance could take a back seat when profit margins are measured in pence rather than pounds.
The economic pressure creates an environment where cutting corners becomes attractive. DBS renewals might be delayed. Mandatory training could be allowed to lapse. Documentation gaps may be overlooked. Each omission seems minor in isolation, but collectively they could contribute to the high non-compliance rates observed during provider transitions.
This race to the bottom in pricing ultimately serves no one. Providers risk inheriting compliance liabilities. Care workers may operate without proper training or protection. Most importantly, residents receive care from staff who may not be adequately prepared or properly vetted.
Balancing speed with standards
The conventional view in care recruitment suggests that speed and compliance are incompatible objectives. Rapid mobilisation, the thinking goes, inevitably requires accepting lower standards temporarily, with compliance issues to be addressed retrospectively.
This assumption creates risk for providers and uncertainty for care workers. Achieving both rapid deployment and full compliance requires infrastructure that exists before urgent need arises. This includes standardised verification processes, accessible training programmes, efficient documentation management, and clear quality assurance protocols. When these systems operate routinely, they can scale to meet urgent demands without compromising standards.
The human impact of acquisition
Behind most provider acquisitions sits a group of agency care workers facing genuine uncertainty. Many have worked in the homes for extended periods. They know the residents, understand routines, and have built relationships with permanent staff. Ownership changes raise questions about employment continuity, shift patterns, and whether they will be replaced.
When a significant proportion of existing agency staff are non-compliant, providers face difficult decisions. The communication challenge is managing staff expectations whilst being clear about non-negotiable requirements.
Transparency about standards, combined with clear pathways to achieving compliance, provides the most ethical approach. Staff with gaps in training or documentation should be offered the opportunity to address these within realistic timescales. This recognises their experience whilst ensuring it is delivered within a properly verified and trained framework.
A care worker with extensive dementia care experience provides value, but only safely when their DBS check is current, training is up to date, and right to work is properly documented. Experience and compliance are not alternatives; they are both necessary. We provide alternative staffing cover to cover this short-term gap ensuring full compliance and safety.
Communication during transition
Effective communication during provider transitions requires honesty about requirements whilst avoiding unnecessary alarm. Staff need to understand what is expected, what support is available to meet those expectations, and what the consequences are if standards cannot be met.
This is particularly important for staff who have been working in homes whilst potentially non-compliant, often through no fault of their own. Previous providers or agencies may have been lax about documentation or training. Clear, factual communication about compliance requirements protects residents, meets regulatory obligations, provides clarity for staff, and reduces reputational risk for providers.
Building sustainable models
The objective of mobilisation during acquisition is not simply managing an immediate crisis. It is establishing a stable, compliant workforce that supports sustainable operations. The care sector faces ongoing workforce challenges.
Provider growth through acquisition is likely to continue as the market consolidates. Each transition presents the same fundamental challenge: maintaining service continuity whilst upholding safety standards.
Addressing this requires rejecting the false choice between speed and compliance. With appropriate systems, processes, and commitment to standards, providers can achieve both. The alternative, accepting non-compliant staff as a temporary expedient, creates risks that can take months or years to fully address.
The compliance gaps revealed during provider transitions point to broader issues within agency care provision. If 80% non-compliance rates are common, the sector has a systemic problem. For the care sector to meet growing demand whilst maintaining safety, compliance infrastructure must improve across all provider types.
Acquisitions and rapid growth will continue. Each instance will test whether speed and standards can coexist. The answer depends on choices made now about how compliance is resourced, managed, and prioritised.
Photo by Georg Arthur Pflueger via UnSplash and featured image from Shutterstock.
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