Fury at care home chief who’s doubled his pay... to £2million

That’s 120 times what many of his dedicated frontline staff get working day and night

ONE of Britain’s biggest care home operators was branded a disgrace last night after it emerged that its chief executive received a £1million pay rise in one year.

Barchester Healthcare boss Dr Pete Calveley’s pay more than doubled to £2.02million in 2019 – around 120 times more than some of the care assistants who work for him.

This is despite around one in ten of the group’s more than 200 homes being judged to ‘require improvement’ by the Care Quality Commission watchdog.

Last night MPs and campaigners hit out at the pay packet, saying it was a ‘slap the face’ to carers working on the front line.

One charity boss said: ‘It’s appalling and everything that’s wrong with the care sector.’ Former care minister Norman Lamb said the gap between Mr Calveley’s pay and that of his staff was obscene. News of the huge pay rise comes after it was revealed that Dr Calveley received a Covid-19 vaccine on December 23 – at a time when fewer than one in five vulnerable residents had received their jabs.

Barchester says that 41 per cent of its residents and 34 per cent of staff have now had at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine.

It is more than a year since the Daily Mail delivered a petition to Downing Street calling on the Prime Minister to honour his pledge to fix the broken care system that forces countless pensioners to sell their homes to fund crippling care costs.

Barchester’s accounts for the year ending December 31, 2019, show the highest-paid director – understood to be Dr Calveley – received a pay rise from £915,000 to £2,019,000.

That same year, the company saw its turnover increase by 6 per cent to around £660million due to ‘higher fee rates and improved occupancy’.

Although the firm would not disclose details of its fees, residential care in England costs an average of £2,800 per month, with nursing facilities costing £3,550.

Former care minister Mr Lamb said the gulf between Dr Calveley’s pay and that of carers working in Barchester homes was ‘hard to stomach’.

‘It’s fairly obscene that the gap between CEO and the frontline is so vast,’ he said. ‘The social care workforce we know is undervalued massively for doing extraordinarily tough, demanding work but immensely valuable work.’

Labour MP Peter Kyle, who has campaigned for better social care, added: ‘When you think what £2million could achieve for so many frail and vulnerable elderly people, knowing that it’s going to one person who is already a millionaire is a bitter pill to swallow.’

Eileen Chubb, director of Compassion in Care, described Dr Calveley’s bumper pay packet as ‘disgusting and disgraceful’.

‘That sort of money shouldn’t be paid to a celebrity footballer,’ she said. ‘You’ve got care staff on the front line putting their lives on the line – it’s a slap in the face.

‘Vulnerable people don’t get rebates when poor care is given. It’s appalling and everything that’s wrong with the care sector.’

Currently 24 Barchester homes have the CQC rating of ‘requires improvement’. Care homes can receive one of four possible ratings: ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’.

Last year inspectors raised concerns over infection control at Chester Court in Northumberland and Rothsay Grange in Andover, Hampshire. Worryingly, staff were observed not wearing personal protective equipment or washing their hands when delivering personal care to residents.

At Winchester Court in Rochester, Kent, residents told inspectors they did not ‘feel safe’, according to a CQC report from November 2019.

‘Putting their lives on the line’ ‘Immensely valuable work’

Meanwhile, at Cherry Trees in Warwickshire, where up to 81 residents are cared for, staff shortages meant there were not enough carers on duty ‘ to meet people’s needs’ – and one resident described how it had taken two hours for staff to arrive after they had rung a bell for help.

Barchester is currently recruiting for more than 330 care positions – many of which are advertised as paying the minimum wage of £8.72 per hour. If a care assistant on this rate worked a 37.5-hour-week, they would earn around £17,000 a year – less than one per cent of Dr Calveley’s pay packet.

Dr Calveley, 60, who joined Barchester in 2014 from debt-ridden chain Four Seasons Healthcare, lives in a five-bedroom detached house in Northamptonshire worth around £600,000.

Responding to criticism of his pay

rise, Barchester said: ‘In his time as CeO we have improved, from below 40 per cent of services being rated good and outstanding to 88 per cent.

‘This reflects the work of all of our staff and particularly our dedicated carers and nursing staff who alongside Pete and the exec team are completely focused on continuing to improve every home in every region for our residents, and who have worked relentlessly to protect our residents and patients throughout the pandemic.’ The company added: ‘The most senior executive’s salary increased solely in line with inflation with the balance of the remuneration increase due to the part-maturation of a four year long-term non-recurrent incentive plan.’

Barchester went on: ‘The CQC and the other national regulators have in 2020 rated 88 per cent of Barchester’s services as “good” or “outstanding”, with nursing services rated some nine per cent higher than the CQC benchmark.’