Ahead of the BBC Panorama programme scheduled for this evening Stephen Burke, Director of GoodCareGuide.co.uk says, “BBC has revealed just the tip of the iceberg of poor care in care homes. The latest analysis of reviews on the Good Care Guide site shows that many families are very concerned about the quality of the residential care their elderly relative is getting.
“Concerns range from incorrect medication and unanswered calls for help to untrained staff and lack of staff to support older people with dementia. Many families are worried about complaining because of fears of the possible repercussions. But CCTV is not the answer. We need better quality care delivered by staff who properly trained, supervised and paid.”
Good Care Guide provides parents and families with an opportunity to find, rate and review care providers local to them. The site works like TripAdvisor, and has proved hugely popular with many parents and families as they embark on the difficult journey of finding the right care for their loved ones.
The issues raised will be like some of the reviews in our recent 4000 analysis – Eldercare in a sorry state, say Good Care Guide reviewers
- One in three (31%) homecare agencies provide a ‘poor’ or ‘bad’ level of care while 33% of homecare agencies considered ‘poor’ or ‘bad’ value for money.
- 20% of care homes in the UK described as not good enough
- 88% of nanny agencies and 86% of nurseries rated ‘good’ or ‘excellent.’
One in three (31%) homecare agencies across the UK provide a ‘poor’ or ‘bad’ level of care according to Good Care Guide’s latest review analysis. Homecare agencies were also blasted for value for money, with a third (33%) of reviewers ranking this category as ‘poor’ or ‘bad.’
The situation is not much better for care homes with almost one in five (18%) people with friends or family in a home criticising them for their quality of care – ranking it ‘poor’ or ‘bad’. Returning to the debate on the costs of eldercare – a quarter (26%) of people said they didn’t receive good value for money.
The statistics come from an evaluation of 4,000 of the most recent reviews on Good Care Guide, the independent TripAdvisor style website for the care industry.
While a significant proportion of reviews for homecare agencies and care homes proved to be negative, the majority of reviews for nanny agencies (88%) and nurseries (86%) said they were very happy with the overall care their child received.
Access to good advice and information is critical to making difficult decisions about care. Good Care Guide allows people in Britain to find, rate and review care providers in their area. It is the place to read nursery reviews, find the best care homes and rate childcare providers.
At the heart of Good Care Guide lies the idea that ‘Sharing is Caring’, a passion that people should be able to make informed decisions about their care needs and the belief that sharing experiences on Good Care Guide will help improve the quality of care in Britain.
