Round table discussion on CCTV in care homes 'could not have been better timed' says chief inspector of adult social care

A round table discussion led by the Care Quality Commission on CCTV in care homes took place yesterday.

A post on the chief inspector of adult social care, Andrea Sutcliffe’s blog entitled ‘Surveillance uncovered…’ summarized the viewpoints of members of the care sector in attendance on both covert and overt surveillance, and mystery shoppers in care homes.

The discussion comes in light of the recent BBC Panorama programme Behind Closed Doors: Elderly Care Exposed which exposed incidents of abuse at two care homes in the UK.

Ms Sutcliffe was keen to highlight that “everyone involved [in the discussion] wants the same thing – safe, high quality, compassionate and effective care for people using services.” Ms Sutcliffe also illustrated the contention of this topic when she said that that she was expecting “strong and opposing views in the room.”

Members of the debate who included Rachael Dodgson, head of adult social care policy at CQC, Des Kelly, executive director of the National Care Forum and carehome.co.uk’s director Davina Ludlow, were asked to consider three key questions:

Under what circumstances do you think CQC would be justified in using covert surveillance techniques?

Would the use of mystery shoppers improve CQC’s ability to assess the quality of care? What could CQC usefully say about the use of overt cameras?

Judy Downey, chair of the Relatives and Residents Association, who has helped families to expose abuse using cameras, highlighted concerns that cameras would not address the real problems that cause poor care – badly managed and inadequately trained staff.

Frank Ursell, chief executive of the Registered Nursing Home Association concluded that he was not opposed to using cameras to collect evidence but felt they could have a role to play as a last resort.

David Hogarth, chairman of Westminster’s Older People’s Action said he thought overt cameras could be used to address individual incidents of poor care in residential homes and would be particularly useful in home care.

According to tweets from the debate recorded by Colin Angel, policy and campaigns director at the United Kingdom Homecare Association, visits from mystery shoppers, in addition to care inspections, were ‘of limited value’ as ‘the CQC have better tools and powers’.

Davina Ludlow, director of carehome.co.uk said:

“Discussed was the fact that CQC inspectors already have the right to arrive at a care home and carry out an inspection at any time. That inspector can see all areas of a home during that visit.”