Rating system launched for care homes in Wales

Welsh care homes will receive a new rating system from next month.

It is aimed at helping families asses the quality of care provided in a home.

Each care home and domiciliary support service will be graded on four different aspects of care, but it will take two years for every home to be inspected and given a rating.

Ratings will have to be displayed at the home and online.

Former automotive worker Howard Evans, 79, lives at Ty Porth care home in Porth, Rhondda Cynon Taf, alongside his wife Elaine.

He said a rating system was a good idea.

"It puts the emphasis on the ones that are not so good to build themselves up," he said.

"You hear sometimes about different homes not looking after each other, they shouldn't be doing it," he added.

"It will sort them all out - as people get older, they need more care."

The four aspects of care being graded are well-being, care and support, leadership and management, and the environment in the home.

Each of these will be judged as excellent, good, requires improvement or requires significant improvement.

A similar system already exists in England.

Hayley Humphries said it was difficult finding a care home for her mother-in-law Moirwen, 76, from Pontypridd.

"The impact of looking for the right place is huge," she said.

"As a family we researched, we looked online, we got a sense of different companies - yes I think a rating system would really help for people who perhaps aren't able to do that independently," she said.

Aneurin Brown, chief executive of Hallmark Care Homes which operates 23 care homes across Wales and England, said the move created more trust.

"We're positive about it, we see it as something which is inevitably going to increase the standard of care, give more transparency and trust," he said.

"What's important is that we give choice, we give the transparency to families to make an informed decision. They can look on a website, they can look on a front door and they can say, this is probably the most important purchase I will make for my loved one or myself," he said.

The Welsh government said it hoped the new system will improve standards across the Welsh care sector.

Minister for children and social care Dawn Bowden, said: "It's about having confidence in the system for people who are coming into residential homes, for families that are thinking about placing some of their relatives into residential homes.

"It's a very big decision for you to take, as a parent or a relative - and so you want some easy access to understandable information, and this a quick at-a-glance picture."

The new inspection ratings system will come into force on Tuesday 1 April and ratings will be shown in inspection reports on Care Inspectorate Wales' website.

Children's care homes and care homes for adults with four or less residents will not have display their rating on their building.