Administrators called in to care home provider

Four Seasons Health Care (FSHC) has eight homes in Glasgow, six in Fife, five in Aberdeenshire and four in Edinburgh which could all be affected along with others in Ayrshire and Lothian.

The company employs around 2,000 people and cares for 1,700 patients across Scotland.

Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) has been appointed to carry out the administration process.

Four Seasons insists that operations will be unaffected by the move.

“The operating companies under which the care home and hospital operations sit are not in administration and continue to be run as normal by the existing leadership teams,” it said.

FSHC Group has been owned by private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners since 2012, however, a large amount of its debt is now being held by US hedge fund H/2 Capital Partners.

A&M will now attempt to sell the group out of administration.

Dr Claire Royston, group medical director of Four Seasons, said the announcement “does not change the way we operate or how our homes are run or prompt any change for residents, families, employees and indeed suppliers”.

She added: “Our priority remains to deliver consistently good care. It marks the latest stage in the group’s restructuring process and allows us to move ahead with an orderly, independent sales process.”

The GMB Scotland union warned that the collapse is “yet another case in point of the crisis in our care sector”.

Senior organiser Drew Duffy said: “Our immediate priority is the safeguard of our members’ jobs and conditions across Four Seasons homes in Scotland and to help tackle any uncertainty for an estimated 1,800 service users and their families.

“That’s why we have asked for an urgent meeting with the Scottish Government and COSLA representatives. We will also continue to work with our union across the rest of the UK and in our engagements with the employer, administrators and the UK Government.

“Four Seasons is just the tip of the iceberg and there is a far wider debate that needs to be had about the sustainability of our care sector in its present form.

“Let’s be clear that the public purse is largely funding these failing providers and the financiers behind them, while the rights of workers at the coal face, mainly low paid women, are constantly under attack. This is a toxic mix for staff and service users alike.

“If we leave this unchallenged then we will only continue to revisit the problems we are facing today in Four Seasons elsewhere in the sector. This must stop and the sector must change.”