Southern Cross is continuing to recruit despite this week’s announcement that is giving up all its 752 care homes.

Howard Green, owner of Green Care Management, told Recruiter that earlier this week he received a call from the manager of a Southern Cross care home in Northampton, who was looking for two nurses.

Green said that he found the fact that Southern Cross was still recruiting “strange” given the decision to wind up the UK’s largest care home group in the next few months.

Green says that because of the risk of not getting paid, he would be looking for “further reassurances” probably in writing, from Southern Cross, before committing the company to put forward candidates.

According to the Financial Times, Southern Cross has identified 132 homes that it considers commercially unviable raising the prospect of job losses, if not immediately then after existing staff have been transferred to new operators that take over the homes. However, Green said that should jobs losses occur many Southern Cross staff would “be able to walk into new positions” with other employers in the sector.

“Southern Cross is seen as a good employer, and provides good training, so anyone with Southern Cross on their CV, that will stand them in good stead.”

Green says that staff nurses, senior nurses and management were particularly well placed to find new jobs. “The people that may struggle are unqualified care assistants,” he added.

However, the Financial Times reported earlier this week that no homes would close in the next three months.

Peter Cullimore, healthcare staffing specialst Universal Care managing director, added that “in the medium term” one effect of the collapse of Southern Cross could be that people more likely to choose domiciliary care rather than care homes. “This could mean there will be more demand for domiciliary care agencies,” he says.