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A third of Norfolk's care homes are not good enough. That is according to new figures which place the county among the worst performing areas of England. Of the 306 facilities in the county which have been inspected by care watchdogs, 102 are rated as inadequate or being in need of improvement, the new statistics show.
Norfolk County Council says some of the county's care providers offer a better standard of care than older inspection reports suggest (Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire) Ninety-one are rated as requiring improvement by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), while 11 are deemed inadequate . It means 33pc of the county's care homes are failing to provide care to the standard which would earn them a good rating. And only six areas of the UK - Bradford, Liverpool, Coventry, Wirral, Halton and Dudley - have a higher proportion of care homes rated inadequate or needing improvement.
READ MORE: Fears more Norfolk care homes could soon face closure On the plus side, 187 Norfolk homes are rated as good and 17 are judged to be outstanding. The issue was raised by Liberal Democrat councillor Dan Roper at a recent meeting of Norfolk County Council. While the council does not directly run care homes, it supports the care market and places eligible people within homes.
Alison Thomas, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for adult social care (Image: Archant) But Alison Thomas, Norfolk County Council's cabinet member for adult social care, cautioned that the CQC ratings might not paint the full picture of the quality of care. She said some of the homes had not been re-inspected by the CQC for some time because of the watchdog's limited resources. Mrs Thomas said its own social care team has carried out assurance checks and many providers have made major improvements since previous inspections .
She added: "The CQC are quite slow in reassessing homes that have demonstrated improvement through our PAMMS (Provider Assessment and Market Management Solution) system, which is our own internal monitoring system. "There are many homes in this county which have low CQC ratings but are actually performing at a level which is much higher than that historic data would suggest." READ MORE: Warning national insurance changes could close care firms Liberal Democrat county councillor Dan Roper (Image: Dan Roper) However, Mr Roper said: "The figure of 33pc of care homes in Norfolk rated as inadequate or requiring improvement is shocking, particularly so considering that, in Cambridgeshire, the figure is just 8pc, so there really are no excuses.
"Norfolk should be a place where people can have comfort and confidence in growing old, instead they and their families will rightfully be concerned that their needs may not be met in our care settings. "It is upon Norfolk's Conservative administration to explore why we compare so dreadfully to our East Anglian neighbours on this metric.".
