Voluntary sector care homes beat private and other providers say inspectors

The voluntary sector in Scotland is leading the field when it comes to quality of care home provision.

New figures show inspectors rated the sector the highest across four criteria – beating health boards, local authorities and private providers at every turn.

The statistics were issued by the Care Inspectorate to mark National Care Home Open Day on Friday, 20 June.

Everyone in Scotland has the right to safe, compassionate, good quality care which meets their needs and respects their rights

They showed that in ‘quality of care and support’, voluntary providers scored a total of 88% in the ‘good’, ‘very good’ and ‘excellent’ categories – compared to just 65% for health boards, 78% for local authorities and 70% for the private sector.

In ‘quality of environment’, voluntary providers notched up 89% approval across the three best categories – with health boards scoring 71%, local authorities 83% and 74% for private.

When it came to ‘quality of staffing’, voluntary providers scored 88%, compared to 71% for health boards, 85% for local authorities and 73% for private.

In the ‘quality of management and leadership’ category, the voluntary sector had 87% approval, against 60% for health boards, 76% for local authorities and 70% for the private sector.

The figures were compiled by inspectors following unannounced visits to care homes.

Annette Bruton, the Care Inspectorate’s chief executive said: “To drive improvement, it is vitally important that people know what to do when they feel the care they or their loved ones receive is below what is acceptable.

“We take all complaints very seriously and every concern raised with us is fully investigated.

"To ensure that our robust inspections continue to give us an accurate picture of care across Scotland, we are also currently carrying out a review of the way we inspect.

“This will help us ensure that the expertise of our inspectors will increasingly be used to support improvement and highlight the best practice.

“Where we are not happy with the quality of care in any sector, from children to older age, we will step up efforts to support rapid improvement.

“Everyone in Scotland has the right to safe, compassionate, good quality care which meets their needs and respects their rights and where there are concerns we don’t hesitate to take action so that services improve.”

There are almost 1,500 care homes registered with the Care Inspectorate.

Anyone who wants to raise a concern about a care service can call the inspectorate’s helpline on 0845 600 9527.