New quality mark will help millions choose better care
14 August 2006
Millions of people in England will soon have a better way of
judging the quality of care services they or their relatives and
friends rely on.
New star ratings (1-4) for all 25,000 providers of adult
care services in England will let the public see at a glance
whether care providers are excellent, good, adequate or poor.
Paying for a place in a care home can cost as much as £31,000 a
year, sometimes more. The new ratings system will allow the public
and local councils to see whether the fees charged by care
providers match the quality of services they provide.
The public is now being consulted on the details of how the new
system will work. CSCI's newly appointed Chief Inspector Paul Snell
said:
“You may be a young disabled person who needs some help to get
ready in the morning, or an older person choosing a care home, Or
you may be trying to choose a care service for your mother, father,
son, daughter, or other relatives or friends.
“Whatever your needs, having good, clear information about the
quality of care services available in your area is
vital. Every month 100,000 inspection reports are
downloaded from our website by people who want to find out about
their local services. Our reports explain what these services do
well and what needs to improve. But people also want to know more
about the overall quality of a service compared to others.
“This is why CSCI is planning to introduce an overall quality
rating – to give people a really easy way of comparing different
services.
“If you are choosing social care services yourself, such as
finding a home care agency, you can use our ratings to help you
decide.
“If you use social care services and someone else, such as your
local authority, is purchasing your care you can use these ratings
to judge whether they have made a good decision for you.
“If you are a local council or NHS Primary Care Trust arranging
social care services for people in your community you will have
clear information to help you make the right decision.
“And managers and staff working in social care services will be
able to use quality ratings to be sure they clearly understand the
strengths of the service and where it needs to improve.”
Pending the outcomes of the consultation, the new ratings system
is due to be introduced in mid-2007.
Information about the national minimum standards that each home
meets is already publicly available via Commission for Social Care
Inspection (CSCI) inspection reports. But allocating each home a
quality rating would build on this, giving people an
easy-to-understand way of comparing services and empowering them to
make a choice.
The new quality ratings, from one to four stars, will reward
good performance while placing an onus on poorly performing
services to improve. It will also allow the public, and those
commissioning services, to ensure they get value for money.
Under the new ratings system four stars would represent an
excellent quality service, while only one star will signal a poor
quality service. There may also be an ‘E’ rating, which would
mean that enforcement action was being undertaken against that
service.
As well as a rating, all inspection reports will contain a graph
that shows how well the service performs in seven main areas:
quality of life, choice and control, making a positive
contribution, personal dignity and respect, freedom from
discrimination and harassment, improve health and emotional
wellbeing, economic wellbeing and leadership and management.
These reflect the main outcome areas highlighted in the
Government’s White Paper ‘Our Health, Our Care, Our Say’.
The consultation lasts for three months, and closes on 14
November 2006. Ratings will be given to care homes from mid
2007.
Ends