The Independent Care Group hits back over home care criticism

The Independent Care Group has hit back at the report from the Care Quality Commission, claiming that its findings paint an unfair picture of home care providers.

The regional care group in York and North Yorkshire has reacted to the negative comments and statistics highlighted from the ‘Not Just a Number’ report that was released this month.

The group’s chair, Mike Padgham said: “Over recent days there has been much said about instances where home care has failed to reach the standards we all want to see. We do not condone bad practice but do feel it is important to put the CQC’s findings in context.”

He commented that although there were some statistics highlighting failing home care providers, it also showed that the majority were meeting standards saying: “Some 75 per cent of the 250 home care providers met the CQC’s standards, which is an excellent achievement and an improvement on previous years. Only a tiny number of cases – just 3 – resulted in the inspectors having to take any form of action.”

He emphasised that the CQC’s ‘not just a number’ report overall did give a balanced view, describing how care had been delivered well with the individuals’ rights and dignity respected.

Mr Padgham added: “The vast majority of social care is provided by caring professionals who want to do their best for their clients and whose work is appreciated by those clients and their families.” He noted how the report included a number of positive comments from people receiving home care as well as their family carers and relatives.

He commented that well delivered home care benefits the quality of service users lives, but cuts to funding in social care are making it harder to maintain this standard, saying: “Home care workers are working in a climate where funding is being cut and less and less care is being commissioned for cheaper and cheaper prices. A frightening number of local authority commissioners still buy care in 30, 15 minute or even shorter slots, which provides very little opportunity to provide proper care.

“But instead of recognising this, the Government continues to under-fund social care which is inevitably putting a squeeze on the quality of care that is delivered.”

Mr Padgham concluded: “The climate in all social care is tough at the moment but instead of concentrating on the negative we should be thanking those who provide excellent care 365 days a year, in all weathers and doing our best to keep up their morale. And we should be all working together – CQC, local authority commissioners, Government and social care providers – to keep standards going up.”