ALL SIX of Southern Cross’s Oxfordshire care homes will transfer to new operators by the end of October.

Existing operators will take over four of the collapsed care provider’s homes on Friday, September 30.

Four Seasons Health Care is to take over The Triangle in Wheatley, Mill House in Witney and Longlands in Cassington at the end of the month.

Brookfield Care Home in Greater Leys will be run by Methodist Homes.

Control of the other two homes – The Crown in Harwell and The Albany in Headington – will pass to a new venture run by the former boss of Priory clinics at the end of October.

NHP, which owns the two homes, is forming a new company HC-One with healthcare specialist Court Cavendish, run by former Priory boss Dr Chai Patel.

Southern Cross regional manager Ash Khan said all staff at the six homes would transfer over, and residents would notice little difference.

Only Southern Cross staff who do not work on the frontline of care face redundancy, he said.

He said: “The main change for people will be a different badge on the uniform and a different sign outside the front.”

George Tuthill, chairman of the Oxfordshire Care Homes Association said: “I would expect from the residents’ point of view to see no change really, although new management may come in with new capital to make improvements. From the staff’s point of view, their jobs will not change either.”

He added: “I think the handover has been as good as we could have expected.

“Southern Cross has been a slow motion train crash, and has been unsustainable for about two years. I think the thing that will have to happen is that local authorities will have to increase their funding for homes.

“The overriding cause of Southern Cross’s demise was inadequate funding from local authorities.”

Four Seasons, which will now become the UK’s largest care homes operator, already runs The Headington in Roosevelt Drive, while Methodist Homes runs The Homestead in Carterton and West Court in Banbury.

Of Southern Cross’s 750 homes nationwide, 250 are set to be transferred to landlords who are already care operators.

The company announced in March its rental bill was unsustainable, and cut rent payments to its landlords by 30 per cent after being hit by cuts in payments from local authorities and rising operating costs.

It had hoped to continue trading, but announced in July that it could not reach a deal with its landlords.

The company had a policy of buying care homes, selling the properties on to landlords and leasing them back again.