One of Britain’s largest care providers has seen a significant fall in safety standards over the past two years after being bought by Kuwait’s state fund and receiving almost £500m in funds from the British taxpayer , an i investigation can reveal. Voyage Care, which owns more than 280 homes and provides care for some of Britain’s most vulnerable adults was taken over in January 2022 by the Kuwaiti Investment Authority, the £700bn sovereign fund run by the oil-rich Gulf state. An analysis by i shows that since the takeover, 75 of its care homes have been assessed by the Care Quality Commission , with around one third seeing a drop in their performance ratings and 23 homes seeing a drop in safety standards.
There have been allegations of abuse and unexplained bruising at some of Voyage’s homes with police being called in at one facility after a resident died from a fatal dose of medication. The Department of Health and Social Care described the i ‘s findings as “deeply concerning”. A DHSC spokesperson said: “Residents in care settings should always be treated with dignity, care, and safety.
“When a care setting or provider falls below the high standards we expect, the Care Quality Commission should act and it has a range of powers at its disposal including suspension and cancellation of registration.” In a statement to i, Voyage Care said “89 per cent of our locations in England rated either ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC and that “locatio.