A CHARITY which supports the elderly and people with special needs has ended the financial year £117,000 in the red.

Worthing-based Guild Care said the figure was a “considerable loss” but it was confident it would get back on track.

The charity said a large part of the loss was directly linked to its refurbishment of its care home Caer Gwent.

It said reduced occupancy within the new home during the year had a significant impact on top of the £2.4m refurbishment cost.

Other issues have included the impact of the national living wage, which costs the charity an extra £500,000 a year.

A drop in local authority grants for community services provided by Guild Care, despite the increased cost in providing them, has cost the charity about £45,000.

In a statement, Guild Care said: “ In addition to the pressures facing community services we have seen the differential between private care home fees and the local authority rate increase, with some local authorities still paying as little as £380 per week for residential accommodation.

“As I am sure you will appreciate, a fee of this level is simply not sustainable when the average cost of providing care across our homes is £1,183 per week.

“Although 2015/16 was very challenging from a financial and operational perspective, moving into 2016/17 we are already starting to see the benefits of our investment with a £748k improvement in net income and expenditure.

“In the coming years it is the intention of Guild Care that where practical it will continue to run all of our existing services but this will be at a significant cost unless we manage our finances prudently.

“With the robust planning and financial control 2016/17 the board of trustees expect to see the organisation return to financial stability

“This will allow us to put in place the financial building blocks required to support the next five years of strategic planning.”