One in five care homes is failing according to official stats unearthed by the Express (Image: Getty Images)
Thousands of Britain’s most voiceless and vulnerable are living in failing care homes, new figures reveal.
Days after the decade-long crisis was finally acknowledged with plans for an independent commission to transform social care, the Express can reveal how the frail, elderly and vulnerable are being badly let down by those with a duty to look after them.
Latest official statistics show 2,615 care homes – around 20 per cent of those inspected by the Care Quality Commission [CQC] regulator – are ranked either inadequate or requires improvement.
But experts fear the grim picture will only deteriorate further as social care providers brace themselves for the full impact of Labour’s Budget tax raid which will take effect from April.
That, industry experts say, will force many to cut and run leaving those most in need of help in limbo.
Helen Wildbore, Director of Care Rights UK, said: “Our advice line hears every day from people struggling with the continuing crisis in social care, receiving poor care which jeopardies their dignity and safety. It is unacceptable that one in five care homes are still not meeting basic standards – the regulator must address these failings with urgency.
“With the financial pressures on the system getting worse, we fear this will lead to more homes being forced to close. Older people living in care deserve security in their home – a move can have a devastating impact on their health and wellbeing.”
Mr Streeting was told of the social care catastrophe during a visit to a care home in Carlisle (Image: PA)
The CQC rates homes as either outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate, after pre-planned and unannounced inspections.
There are 14,516 registered care homes but only 13,844 are currently ranked.
An audit by the Express shows 143 are rated inadequate, 2,472 as requires improvement, 10,634 good and 595 outstanding.
But the reality could be even worse. The CQC says there are an additional 672 unrated homes, including those recently-registered, or where services have changed legal ownership more than once and their previous rating has been removed.
If a home is rated requires improvement it can mean residents’ safety, health or wellbeing is at risk. Inadequate could see it placed in special measures, or shut down.
Analysis by Care Rights UK, set up to champion those reliant on Britain’s shattered sector, found two thirds of living in care, or their advocates, were “not confident” or “not confident at all” in the CQC’s ability to ensure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care.
And some 56 per cent who experienced poor quality care did not report their concerns because many feared spiteful repercussions like eviction.
One person giving evidence to the charity under condition of anonymity said: “The CQC appears almost powerless. It is common practice for care providers to find reasons to evict or threaten to evict residents if family members raise concerns. Safeguarding teams will excuse incidents rather than investigate and are almost afraid to challenge as there are shortfalls in available placements and a bad place is better than no placement in their eyes.
“Family members are left trying to make the best of very bad situations with no professional support.”
The testimony suggests thousands are petrified of speaking out about poor care, despite some families paying £1,500 week for the privilege.
Ms Terroni quit before Christmas after a damning independent assessment of the regulator (Image: File)
Another respondent said: “I raised safeguarding for my dad to the care home and CQC, along with social services [but] the day after I was banned from the care home.”
The CQC was set up to regulate and ensure safety in care homes, hospitals, GP and dental surgeries, and ambulances, but the future of the quango hangs in the balance after Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting branded it “not fit for purpose”.
His assessment – an effective vote of no confidence – was delivered after Dr Penny Dash published an interim report last year which found significant internal failings hampered the CQC’s ability to identify poor performance.
An estimated one in five locations the regulator can inspect have never received a rating, some organisations have not been re-inspected for several years, and some inspectors lack experience.
The CQC blames long-standing issues on a sector-wide crisis, saying a perfect storm of unresolved issues including bed-blocking, where patients should not be in hospital but have nowhere to go, for “impacting the quality of care on others”.
Last year Kate Terroni, its £200,000 boss, sparked fury after this newspaper revealed she had asked for help in defining what good care means. Ms Terroni was chief inspector of adult social care during the Covid crisis, which saw families locked out of care homes and relatives banned from seeing dying loved ones, before being made interim chief executive.
She quit before Christmas with her role temporarily filled by James Bullion until Sir Julian Hartley takes up the post permanently.
Mr Streeting has been told decades of underinvestment had created the national social care emergency (Image: PA)
Mr Bullion said: “We have consistently raised our concerns about the fragility of the adult social care sector and called for a long term sustainable funding solution.
“Our annual State of Care report published in October highlighted that the adult social care sector remains fragile. The number of new requests for local authority adult social care support resulting in no service being provided has increased by 27% over the last five years. Waits for care home beds and home-based care account for nearly half of delayed discharges for patients in hospital for more than 14-days. While vacancy rates have dropped slightly, the average vacancy rate in social care is still nearly three times higher than in the national workforce, and care workers are among the lowest paid members of society.
“While we know many people are accessing good, safe care it is clear that these issues continue to impact the quality of care for too many others.
“We know we need to increase our rate of inspections to make sure we update the ratings of providers, minimise the number of unrated services, and give the public confidence in quality of care. We are working hard to improve our ways of working, with new changes to our technology, which makes this possible.
“Each and every person is entitled to high quality care and we will continue to hold providers to account where we find this is not the case.”
The rise in employers’ NI contributions was a centrepiece of Labour’s first Budget in 14-years. From April, employers will pay 15 per cent on salaries above £5,000, compared with 13.8 per cent on salaries above £9,100 now. In addition, the National Living Wage will increase to £12.21 an hour, while the National Minimum Wage, for those aged 18-20, will rise to £10 an hour.
It has left businesses panicking at how they will fund the tax raid at a time record numbers need around-the-clock help – most of them placed by councils with local providers.
One provider employing 167 full-time and 45 part-time staff looking after 137 people in five homes and one day care centre in Yorkshire, said: “The rises will mean an extra £14,000 a month, or £168,000 a year on National Insurance Contributions and the National Living Wage a further £22,000 a month or £264,000-a-year, meaning a total extra wage bill of £432,000 a year.”