June 9, 2011 11.40 am This story is over 153 months old

Lincoln care homes owner announces cuts

Care jobs: Three Lincoln care homes are under threat as the UK’s largest car home provider struggles financially.
The three Lincoln care homes owned by Southern Cross, in Cherry Willingham, Skellingthorpe and Branston

Three privately run care homes in Lincoln face an uncertain future after their owners, Southern Cross, announced 3,000 jobs will go across the country.

Southern Cross, the largest provider of care homes for the elderly in the UK, runs homes in Branston, Cherry Willingham and Skellingthorpe, on Lincoln’s outskirts.

A spokesperson for the company couldn’t confirm what will happen to the Lincoln homes, as the job losses announced are part of an “ongoing process” which will involve talks with unions. They said that currently there are no concrete details on what will happen to individual homes.

Nationally, Southern Cross runs 752 care homes and its 44,000 staff care for 31,000 people. Financial problems, which include struggling to pay its £250 million rent bill, led to the company’s New Horizons programme to “improve operational effectiveness”.

The job cuts have come out of this programme.

In a statement, Jamie Buchan, Chief Executive of Southern Cross, said: “Southern Cross has a strong set of values and a clear vision to serve the care-related needs of elderly people in our society.

“In our announcement we are engaging with colleagues to put in place the best possible staffing model for our future needs, and one which fully embraces the best practice available to us.

“In developing this model during a very challenging time for both our company and the industry we are determined that the process we undertake should be exemplary in terms of staff communication.”

Photos: Google Street View | Related Reports: The Telegraph [1] [2], Lincolnshire Echo