The UK Care Quality Commission has found 32% of the 4,000 aged care facilities in England are inadequate or in need of improvement, according to The Guardian.
Another 37% have been told they need to improve their safety with only one in 50 services achieving the top rating of “outstanding” after the checks, which have taken the CQC nearly three years to complete.
Worryingly, some services were even downgraded after re-inspection. Of 1,800 facilities inspected more than once since 2014, 26% were downgraded from “good” to “requires improvement” or inadequate”.
The report will place further pressure on the UK Govt, which has cut spending on social care by £6B in England since 2010.
Our aged care facilities often come under fire in the media here over reports of abuse or neglect, but you tell us: where would you rather be?
Under the inspections, all of England’s ‘social care services’ were judged on a number of grounds: safety, effectiveness, whether they are caring, if they are responsive and quality of leadership.
Aged care homes fared the worst, with services grouped as “community social care” – home care services that offered sheltered housing or delivered care and support into people’s homes – coming out on top.
Andrea Sutcliffe, the CQC’s chief inspector of adult social care, now says aged care is “approaching its tipping point”.
“Many of these homes are struggling to recruit and retain well-qualified nursing staff and that means that this is having an impact on delivering good services to people who have got very complex needs,” she said.
What will happen next?
You can see the full report here.
