Summary
Information is available to help people search, choose, compare and comment on residential care homes and home care services. This free service is available via NHS Choices. The intention is to make it possible for citizens to arrive at more confident choices concerning registered care for themselves and for friends and relatives.
The website supplies care profiles with comprehensive information on care services. These profiles assemble information from various of sources, including:
- Official information from the Care Quality Commission inspection reports on care services.
- Information supplied by care providers themselves on the specialist services and facilities on offer. Information might cover staffing and indicative information such as sample menus, photos of rooms and gardens.
- Comments from the public, service users, residents and their relatives, reflecting their experiences of the care provider. Links to other comment sites may be supplied.
- There will be ability for the public to give services “star ratings” from next month.
- There will be official Ofsted-style ratings of care services, when these are introduced later.
Information on entitlements to care, paying for care, arranging a care need assessment and other practical advice is also supplied.
Read more: Government launches care comparison website.
View the Care Comparison Website.
[A brief reference to this item features in Dementia and Elderly Care: the Latest Evidence Newsletter (RWNHST), Volume 3 Issue 7, May 2013].
