MPs question care minister over CQC results finding four fifths of care homes 'good' or 'outstanding'

Care minister Caroline Dinenage has praised care staff for helping four out of five care homes become ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ but MPs have questioned the accuracy of results. Care minister Caroline Dinenage. Credit: Parliament TV

Figures published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) this month, reveal 80 per cent of care homes have been rated 'good' or 'outstanding' for safety.

Some 84 per cent of adult social care providers were rated as 'good' or 'outstanding' overall.

Speaking in the House of Commons on 18 June, Caroline Dinenage told MPs: “No compromise can be made on the safety of care homes and that is why the government introduced robust inspection regimes led by the Care Quality Commission."

The minister said: “The results were down to over one and a half million adult social care professionals “who work with great professionalism and integrity in adult social care.”

MP: 'Dangerous' issues 'lurking beneath the surface'

But her comments led to MPs questioning the CQC's results.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan MP, Labour MP for Tooting said: “Just because care homes have a CQC rating of good, from my own family’s personal experience, does not mean that they are not dangerous and serious issues lurking beneath the surface, which impact patients’ safety and care. “

Dr Allin-Khan has previously told MPs how she pleaded for an explanation for her father’s injuries sustained at a council-funded care home. Her father has dementia and can no longer talk.

When she asked the minister to say what the government is doing to look into the CQC reports of ‘good’ homes, Caroline Dinenage said: “Abuse of vulnerable people is absolutely abhorrent.

“We’re very determined to stop it. We want to prevent it happening in the first place through the tough inspection regime.

"We want to shut down poor quality homes and most importantly we’ve made sure that across the country, police and councils and the NHS need to work together to help protect people in the long term.”

Emma Dent Coad, Labour MP for Kensington, asked the care minister: “Is the minister confident that we have a generation of [care] providers with the skills, training, facilities needed to keep dementia sufferers safe and well cared for?”

Care minister: Given 'more funding for councils'

In response, Caroline Dinenage replied: “It is of course incredibly concerning when we hear cases of abuse or neglect in care homes. It’s why the Government asked the CQC to inspect them in the first place. It’s why we’ve put in place the training through Skills for Care, given councils access to a lot more funding to help support them.” “The way that we drive quality is by supporting them better, ensuring that we’re able to recruit more people into this incredible profession.”

The minister referred to the government’s adult social care recruitment campaign ‘Every day is different’ which aims to attract people “with the right values”.

Last week, the CQC’s chief executive Ian Trenholm appeared before the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) on 12 June to answer questions about CQC’s regulation of Whorlton Hall, which was the focus of a BBC Panorama investigation for it's cruelty to vulnerable people in its care.

The Committee asked for the previously unpublished findings of a 2015 inspection of Whorlton Hall, which resulted in the setting being rated ‘good’.

At the time, the 2016 report recommended the provider review its process for updating families and helping families visit their relatives and ensure all appropriate staff attend specific learning disabilities communication training.

Referring to Whorlton Hall, Caroline Dinenage said: “Opportunities to intervene have been missed and we must be open and transparent in getting to the bottom of what happened.”