One of the major issues facing the care industry at the moment is the confusion over quality ratings for care homes. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) used to have a star rating for care homes – similar to that used for hotels – to demonstrate the quality of care provided. This changed recently, causing confusion amongst the public about how best to judge the quality of a care home.
A new rating system is being offered by independent companies, but ratings tend to be inconsistent and aren’t properly benchmarked, making it difficult to compare one care home against another.
The major issue which is affecting people looking into different homes is that these new ratings can be misleading, as they are not regulated. This is making it difficult for people to make informed choices.
In addition, insurers use CQC reports to measure the quality of care provided by an establishment. This can have a direct impact on the premiums a home can expect to pay, but now that there is no benchmarking available care homes are left unsure as to what the effect will be on the cost of their insurance.
McClarrons’ Managing Director, Sean McClarron, said: “Quite often an Insurer will read the CQC reports without having full appreciation of the management of the risk and what action has been taken since the report was published. We will discuss the CQC report with the client, find out exactly what corrective action has been taken if any was required and explain this to the Insurer so that a greater understanding exists, often resulting in better terms.”
