Care services for the elderly need to improve

Monday, March 29, 2010

One in ten care homes for the elderly are failing to make the grade, according to a Care Commission report.

The 'Making the Grade?' report found that a total of 28 care homes were graded as "unsatisfactory" (grade one) or "weak" (grade two) in all inspected areas.

It is the first time that the Care Commission has graded registered services such as childminders and care homes.

Inspections were carried out in 2008/09 at 71 per cent of the 14,545 registered services. Each service was awarded a grade of 1-6 across various "quality themes", including quality of care and support, quality of staffing and management and leadership.

Overall, inspectors found the quality of services were good, with around 80 per cent of services achieving grades 4-6 for each theme. In addition, just over 98 per cent of care services were graded "adequate" (grade three) or above.

Director of Children's Services Regulation, Ronnie Hill said: "It is so important that people who use services and families understand that they can play a major role in insisting on and driving forward improvements in care standards.

"Grading gives everyone 'at a glance' information about whether a service is performing well or not. It means that good providers are getting the recognition they deserve and those who need to do better are under intense pressure to improve. To get good grades, services have to show that the children and adults who use the services have good outcomes, are well cared for, supported and protected.

"We hope this first full year report will prove useful information for all those with an interest in care and will help to drive up the quality of Scotland's care services."

Of the 3,449 services for adults inspected, housing support services and support services offering care at home achieved the highest proportion of grades five and six. Care homes for the elderly were found to have the most room for improvement.

Elsewhere, the majority of the 6,881 children's services achieved good grades while one in three childminding services were graded 5 and above.