Most care homes rated good but almost 350 face closure says watchdog

The majority of Britain’s care homes (67 per cent) have received a Good rating from inspectors but 342 face being shut down (three per cent) if they do not improve.

A total of 7,652 care homes have been rated Good out of 11,421 homes inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), as of 19 May.

CQC figures show there are three times more Inadequate care homes (342) than Outstanding (114). While one per cent of care homes received an Outstanding rating, 3,426 care homes (30 per cent) were rated as Requires Improvement.

Approximately 17,000 care homes are registered with the CQC in England of which 11,421 have been inspected so far, based on the care regulator's new monitoring method introduced in October 2014. The new inspections give ratings according to whether care homes are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

Charnwood amongst top 1%

Today, the CQC announced 41 care homes had received a Good rating out of the 69 inspected in Central England in the last week. Some 22 care homes received a Requires Improvement rating and five were rated inadequate. One care home, namely Charnwood Country Residence in Hertfordshire was rated Outstanding.

Special measures

The CQC’s latest annual report, has revealed that during 2015/16, the watchdog took 901 enforcement actions against adult social care settings (includes community services, care homes, home care services and hospices.)

71 care homes improved and left special measures

Of the 438 that entered special measures at the start of the 2015/16 year, 321 were still in special measures by the end of the financial year.

Of the 117 settings that exited special measures, the majority totaling 71 improved, 21 were forced to shutdown and 25 chose to close voluntarily, following enforcement action in 2015/16. With 5,579 care homes left to inspect, the CQC says it is on track to inspect all 17,000 homes by next March.

The CQC previously aimed to have all care homes inspected under the new inspection model by this September but has now extended the deadline to the end of March next year.

A CQC spokeswoman said: “We expect to have inspected every one of them (that was registered on or before 1 October 2014) at least once by the end of March 2017.”

To read the CQC’s Annual report and accounts 2015/16 visit: http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/annual-report