Drive To Improve Care Homes For Elderly

The government will today tell local authorities to use their purchasing power to drive out of business any care home proprietor who fails to provide older people with a quality service, delivered with dignity and respect.

Ivan Lewis, the minister for social care, is preparing a vigorous response to results of a poll in the Guardian yesterday showing 66% of adults are frightened by the prospect of going into a care home.

He said last night that it was unacceptable for public money to be spent on sustaining the minority of care homes that were tarnishing the sector’s reputation.

Local authorities in England, which spend more than £14bn a year on buying places in residential and nursing homes, should use their commissioning muscle to help the best establishments to expand.

“If necessary we have to drive out of business those homes that do not provide a world class service,” he will tell a Guardian conference on commissioning care for older people.

Lewis said the strategy would depend on a grading of more than 18,000 care homes that is being undertaken by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI). Starting early next year, it will give every home a quality score. The worst will get zero stars and the best three.

He said people paying for their own residential or nursing care “will have a transparent set of information as a basis for choosing where to go”. But local authorities, which foot the bill for older people on slender means, should also use the star ratings to drive their decisions.

“We will be telling them: do more business with those homes that provide excellent care and dignity; and get tough with those that do not achieve excellence.”

The minister promised legislation to overturn a recent judgment that publicly-funded residents of private sector care homes are not protected by the Human Rights Act. “During consultations on a British bill of rights and responsibilities, we will consider how to put right this anomaly.”

He was more cautious about committing the government to accepting the demand of older people’s charities for tougher laws on age discrimination. “We are committed to introducing an equality bill during this parliament and the consultation on what it should contain has now closed. One of the issues is whether it should strengthen the rights of older people in terms of goods, facilities and services.”

The ICM poll found 55% of adults across Britain do not believe older people in Britain are generally treated with respect and 40% fear being lonely in old age.

The polling, towards the end of last month, coincided with publication of evidence from the CSCI showing nearly three-quarters of local authorities in England are rationing social services to exclude tens of thousands of vulnerable older people from help with the basic tasks.

Lewis said the government would publish a green paper on the funding of social care next year. Gordon Brown has also promised a new deal for millions of carers looking after relatives or friends.

Over the next few weeks, ministers would develop a campaign to protect the dignity of older people using hospitals, care homes and homecare services.