The Department of Health & Social Care will be working to improve the handling of care home feedback across the adult social care sector. The Government has said people should be ‘aware of bodies outside care homes’ that can assist with feedback and complaints.
Working alongside the ‘Complaints Improvement Partnership for health and social care’ the Department will work to carry out a review of advocacy services for care home residents and ‘improve the culture of feedback’ involving the role of ‘feedback champions’ as recommended by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
In a report to the Government the CMA has said the current care sector model is unsustainable. In its response, the Government has said it will take ‘immediate action’ to improve consumer protection in the care home sector by drafting stronger regulations requiring care homes to:
- Notify the regulator when a resident is evicted
- Publish fee information for self-funders online including what is included in them (such as upfront fees and hidden costs)
- Provide a copy of the contract and T&Cs to residents and their loved ones at an early stage of the decision making process
- Ensure providers use a standard template in summarising their most important T&Cs
- Protect residents’ deposits in full against the risk of insolvency.
