Almost all care homes forced to close by the CQC in England are run on a for-profit basis, new analysis has found.

The Nuffield Foundation funded research by the University of Oxford was published in The Lancet.

Co-author Dr Benjamin Goodair (Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford), said: “Social care services in England are on a knife-edge of a crisis: underfunded, understaffed, and struggling to supply the quality of care deserved by the most vulnerable people in society.

“However, this new data challenges the assumption that these pressures can be eased by outsourcing more social care to the for-profit sector. Instead, what is needed is a comprehensive assessment of the impact of for-profit provision on the quality and sustainability of adult social care in England.”

The research found almost all involuntary closures since 2011 occurred in for-profit care homes: 804 out of 816 closures, equivalent to one in 30 for-profit care homes having been closed involuntarily by the CQC during this time.

The report also found 52 of the homes which had been closed had previously been rated Good and suggested this meant they posed urgent safety concerns with residents at acute risk of harm.

It was estimated that 20,000 residents were forced to relocate urgently due to enforced care home closures since 2011.

The researchers said their findings were particularly concerning given the increasing dominance of for-profit care homes in the sector. Over 85% of care homes in England in September 2023 were operated by for-profit providers, compared with 78% in 2011.