Residents Rate Care Homes – UK’s Largest And Most Authoritative Survey
The UK’s largest and most authoritative survey of care home residents, Your Care Rating, has today announced the results for its 2014 annual survey.
The survey looks at the views of over 20,000 residents who take part in it from 29 different care home providers in more than 1,000 care homes. Each care home is awarded an Overall Performance Rating (OPR) out of 1,000. The national average score this year was 872 with scores ranging between 631 and 995.
Care providers in the North East received the highest regional average of 886, followed by the North West which scored an average of 880. This contrasts with London which received the lowest regional average score of 863. The national average scores across the survey’s four main themes were: staff and care, 871; home comforts, 852; choice and having a say, 854; and quality of life, 922. However, the high and low scores varied considerably across the themes, for example for home comforts the scores ranged between 454 and 996.
The surveys paints a broadly positive picture of the state of the UK’s care homes, which is at odds with the negative perception the care home sector often receives. Whilst sadly there are always examples of poor care, what the survey shows is that the overwhelming majority of residents like and value the care they receive.
Douglas Quinn, chairman of Your Care Rating, said: “We need to listen much more to the people who actually live in care homes. They are best placed to judge if the care they receive is good or bad. This year the results show that most residents are very happy with their care – they are treated with dignity, kindness and respect and most care homes are actually doing a very good job. Whilst there will always be negative headlines, for the overwhelming majority of residents day-to-day life in a care home is pretty good.”
All of this year’s results for every care home surveyed are displayed in detail on the Your Care Rating website. The website also shows how homes that took part in the survey last year performed.
All of this helps families who are choosing a care home for a loved one by giving them vital information on what the residents actually think of each home and the standard of care. The Your Care Rating survey has 28 questions and residents are provided with opportunities to add comments, which then are fed back anonymously to the care homes, alongside the survey results. All participating care homes receive a detailed analysis of the results, along with benchmark scores for other care homes and provider organisations. This insight also directs care improvement plans for each provider and provides invaluable feedback on what is most important for residents.
The survey was undertaken for Your Care Rating by leading research company Ipsos MORI. The questionnaire was compiled with input from care home operators, a group of care home residents, the National Care Forum (NCF), Care England and Prof Julienne Meyer of My Home Life and City University.
