New survey asks public to tell watchdog their experiences of choosing care

23 January 2007

A new survey is inviting thousands of older people and their relatives to recount their experiences of choosing a care home.

Social care watchdog CSCI wants to find out how much help and information people were given before choosing a care home for themselves, a relative or a friend.

The survey is on CSCI’s website at www.csci.org.uk/faircontract and will run for the next five weeks until 28 February.

It takes ten minutes to complete and is anonymous.

David Walden, CSCI’s Director of Strategy, said:

“Choosing and buying a new home is one of the biggest decisions many people make in their lives.

“Choosing the right care home for you or a relative or friend in their old age is no less important.

“People tell us that they want to make informed choices about what’s available in their area.

“Yet, as we pointed out in our recent State of Social Care report, many people do not get the information, help and support they need to make informed choices.

“Our survey covers subjects such as whether people have received assessments about the sorts of care they might need (which is a legal right); whether they get enough information to help them choose between the care homes on offer; and whether they were told about any costs to them of paying for a place in a care home.

“With the launch of this online survey, we are encouraging people to tell us about the type of information they had access to, which we hope will make the experience better for older people and their relatives in the future. We will be reporting on this issue later in the year.”

Ends

Notes for editors

1. Published in May 2005, an Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report, ‘Care homes for older people in the UK – a market study’ found that many people are not given enough advice and information to help them make informed choices about the care services available to them. The CSCI shared the OFT’s concerns and its response to the OFT report can be found at: www.csci.org.uk/pdf/oft_care_home_response.pdf

2. Nearly two years on, CSCI is now keen to see whether any progress has been made in this area, and whether current and prospective users of social care services are getting better advice and information when having to choose the right care services for them.

3. CSCI is the single inspectorate for social care in England, responsible for regulating and inspecting all social care providers - whether in the public or independent sector, and for assessing the performance of local councils in delivering their personal social services functions.

4. The Commission’s primary aim is to improve social care by putting the needs of people who use care services first.

The Commission is chaired by Dame Denise Platt DBE and has five Commissioners. The Chief Inspector is Paul Snell. CSCI staff work across nine regions in England - aligned with the government offices of the regions.