Southwark saw the biggest increase in care homes being slapped with a poor rating out of any area in England in the past year, according to a charity.
The finding comes from an analysis published this month by Independent Age, which analysed inspectors’ ratings on care homes from January 2018 to January 2019 for areas across England.
There was over an eighteen per cent increase of care homes rated either ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’, in Southwark during that period.
However, not all care homes will have been rated during that period – and the majority of the care homes Southwark are rated ‘good’.
The national figures “show thousands of vulnerable older people live in homes that are failing to deliver even the bare minimum,” said George McNamara, the organisation’s Director of Policy and Influencing.
The charity expressed concern that elderly people were living in areas with poor care home standards – and called on the government to reform social care, which it said was causing a crisis in homes.
A spokesperson for Southwark’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group reiterated that the majority of Southwark homes were rated ‘good’ and said that where “challenges” exist in Southwark care homes, it works with other organisations to drive up standards.
“We are also working to improve the safety and quality of provision by increasing choice, improving accesses to services and attracting new providers into the sector,” he said.
“Our priority is to ensure Southwark residents receive the right support, in the right place and at the right time.”
The charity’s call for Government reform of social care was echoed by Cllr Jasmine Ali, cabinet member for Children, Schools and Adult Care.
“Locally we have made a commitment to open two new nursing homes equipped with modern facilities and high quality nursing but it must also be said that local authorities need central government to better to invest in and reform the social care system,” she said.
She added: “To ensure that care remains consistently high, the council and partners carryout monitoring visits, including unannounced visits, to ensure the safety of residents and where action plans are in place the council oversees that providers are making the necessary steps to improve.”