Latest Press Release
Care Home regulator abandons star ratings
Released on : 30/09/2010
LONDON, ENGLAND – 30 September 2010 – BestCareHome.co.uk, the care home comparison website, announced today that it will continue to award and publish star ratings, even as the regulator of Care Homes moves to abandon them on its own website.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) stopped awarding star ratings at the end of June, and after today will no longer allow users of their website to search for homes using the star ratings. The CQC is working on a new quality rating system, but this will not be in place until after May 2011.
“It was a mistake to abandon the star rating system before an alternative was put in place,” said Richard Phillips, founder of BestCareHome.co.uk
“Choosing a care home is a difficult task and star ratings provide an excellent way of helping the public shortlist homes. Without these, you need to read through inspection reports, which can be 30 pages or more. Finding the right care home, often at short notice can be incredibly stressful and people need all the help they can get.” Phillips added.
The Best Care Home site will continue to allow users to search using star ratings.
Over the next few days, BestCareHome.co.uk will use CQC data to award star ratings for several hundred care homes not previously rated by the regulator. This is done using both data and criteria published by CQC. If new inspection reports contain sufficient detail, the star ratings for other care homes will also be updated through the year.
The need for a robust quality system was further underlined yesterday by the CQC describing the forced closure of 6 homes and another 28 shutting down after enforcement action in the last year.
“Closing a home is a serious decision and can be devastating for residents who have to move, but if the worst houses cannot be persuaded to improve the regulator is right to force them to close.” Phillips continued.
Information for Editors
Contact
To discuss this story, please contact Richard Phillips, founder of BestCareHome.co.uk on richard@bestcarehome.co.uk
About BestCareHome
BestCareHome (BCH) is a UK-based website designed to help find the right care home for you, your family member or client. Uniquely, the site ‘ranks’ all 18,500 English care homes based on analysis of over 130,000 inspection reports. Visit http://www.bestcarehome.co.uk.
Resources
CQC walks quietly away from care home star ratings
CQC article, changes to registration system
CQC article on how old star ratings will be displayed