A stark variation in the quality of care homes at a regional and local authority level across England has been highlighted by new research from charity Independent Age.
New analysis has shown that the North West is the worst performing region in England when it comes to the proportion of satisfactory care homes, containing seven of the eight worst performing English local authorities.
In some areas such as Stockport or Salford, older people and their families face little choice of quality care, with 3 in 5 homes rated not good enough.
The North West, with 33.6% of care homes performing poorly, Yorkshire and The Humber with 32.2% and the South East with 28.2% were revealed to be the worst performing regions of England for care home quality.
London with 20.3% of care homes performing poorly, the East of England with 20.8% and the South West with 21.1% were found to be the best performing regions for care home quality.
The new analysis is based on CQC inspections of care homes which rate homes as either ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’. The analysis regarded homes rated ‘Requires improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’ as being poor performers.
Commenting on the findings, Simon Bottery, Director of Policy at Independent Age, said: “No one should be forced to live in an unsatisfactory care home but our analysis shows this is the grim reality in some parts of the country. The market is simply not providing a decent choice for older people and their families but there is little indication that local authorities or the government are giving the problem the attention it deserves. Money is likely to be one cause but not the only one.
“The government has an opportunity to address this in its upcoming Green Paper on social care but, in the meantime, councils must demonstrate that they understand the reasons for care home failures and are working to resolve them.”
The briefing ‘Care home performance across England’ is part of an Independent Age campaign to improve the quality of care homes available to older people.
