Share your adult social care experiences with CQC - chance to win £300! NOW CLOSED!

[EmmaMumsnet]

We are working with CQC (Care Quality Commission), who through a current campaign #CareAware would like to make the public more aware of their inspection reports and ratings which can help people make informed decisions if you are choosing home care or a care home. With this aim in mind, they would like to hear your experiences of adult social care.

Here’s what CQC have to say: "Choosing care can be a real worry for people, their families and carers, wondering who or where to turn to – but CQC can help. The public needs to know about the quality of care services available and they also need to be reassured that if there are any problems, these are being identified and tackled.

That is why we publish regular inspection reports with quality ratings on more than 20,000 individual care services registered with CQC. This means that people have access to clear, independent and trusted information to help them make the right decisions for them or their loved one.

People can be confident that we find most care services in England are providing good, safe care. For those that need to do better, or are not getting any better, we take appropriate action to ensure providers either improve or stop providing care altogether.’"

Perhaps you want to share your experience of choosing a care home for yourself or a loved one – and want to share your tips with others in that position? Maybe you chose home care for yourself or for a friend, partner or relative? Or perhaps you want to tell us about your plans and conversations you are having with your family so that you or they do not have to make a rushed decision.

Whatever your experiences are, share them on the thread below and everyone who comments will be entered into a prize draw, where one lucky winner will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

The CQC is responsible for inspecting all hospitals, including private hospitals, GP practice, dentists, care homes, residential home and care provided in peoples own home in England.

Each inspection answers five key questions: Is the service safe? Is it effective? Are the staff caring and responsive to people’s needs and is the service well led?

My mother needed help and she had carers come in three times a day. It was a positive experience. They helped her with personal hygiene and her meals. Everything went smoothly and she looked forward to their visits.

Luckily we have yet to be in this position although you do hear the horror stories. If I were to be in that position I would try to cope within the family but if that was not feasible I would research as much as I can through friends, family and with lots of visits beforehand!

Do they get warned about CQC inspections? If they do, they shouldn't.

This is such a current subject for me at the moment. My mum has been in hospital for three months following a fall resulting in a compound fracture and is now in the position where she is as well as she will ever be. She finally has a dementia diagnosis (long overdue!) and has various medical needs, so has been highly recommended for a fully funded nursing home placement,and so begins the nightmare of waiting to see what is offered, and where, and whether they are suitable. I am following this thread with interest and trepidation to see what insight I can gain while we choose somewhere suitable.

I hear nothing but bad things about care homes in my area so I just would not be able to bring myself to put my mum in one, the guilt would get to me. When the time comes I just can't trust any of the homes so will have to look after her at my home

Goblins are stealing my cheese.

We're currently in the process of trying to set up care for my granddad who has dementia. He is adamant he wants his independence but he has completely went downhill recently. We have a social worker helping out at the minute to get everything set up and she has been brilliant. It's just a case now of finding the right place for him.

You do hear lots of horror stories, but there are also some lovely people who work in homes who really do care.

My Dad is getting to an age where he will need help soon and the costs involved in adult care are astounding, I think we may end up having him live with us and pay for carers to visit and assist

Thank goodness we did not need to consider these for Mom & Dad, however my sister and I are getting to the age where we might have to consider these options for ourselves, however the stories we hear are less than reasuring

I have cared for my grandma

a clean care home

After reading through this thread, I hope my parents stay fit and healthy enough, like my grandparents, to never need a home. It is disgusting that people are treated like this when those who have murdered and committed violent crimes receive better treatment.

My experience of the care home facility in our area was of an underfunded set up, where the staff bless them were doing all they could and really cared about their work but were on minimum wage with little or no incentives to keep them there.
Not sure I would ever want to put another family member into one and I would much rather be cared for at home than be in one that's for sure

They vary a hell of a lot. When we were looking for care for an elderly relative, some places we went in we decided within the first few minutes that we wouldn't want our relative there. Some are amazing, but unfortunately not all are. We found one in the end that suited us and it was a bit further away from family than we wanted ideally however, it was the best place for him so that is where he went. We still all visited it was just a little bit longer of a drive but we wanted the best for him.

Are you going to do anything about families keeping the personal allowance money & leaving residents with no money for podiatry, hairdressing, new clothes incl underwear?.

There’s massive financial abuse in this country. My patients who are under a social worker are in better conditions than those whose families handle their money.

I’ve seen how cqc deal with failing homes and in all honesty it’s just box ticking.

I will be going to a euthanasia clinic or developing an interest in growing foxgloves when I decide I can’t cope anymore.

I worked in a Nursing Home when I was 17 & my experience was a positive one on the whole. All the staff made time to enjoy quality time with the residents & that makes a massive difference.
The residents had varying levels of care needs. At that time, I just accepted that certain residents were unable to get out of bed & required turning/feeding/changing - but now, to think of the quality of life those residents had - although they were treated with respect & with dignity - I wouldn't want that for my loved ones, or for myself.
Many residents had no family members visiting them & it feels so sad to think of this now.
I wouldn't want to work in a care home now - it's a tough job, with the workload increasing all the time. Many staff get jaded through working long hours to make up for the low pay & I believe this is when the problems occur. There is NEVER any excuse for abuse though.
If I could - I would look after family members myself. I realise it may not be this simple when the time comes, but I hope to do all I can to avoid my loved ones going into a home.

I always find the CQC reports quite mis-leading and noticed that some homes continue to advertise a previously CQC inspection when they have had one since which has come up worse than the historic.
I do feel this in unethical and those who have no access to the internet who can easily via CQC report, I do wander how many have been fooled by this.

We really appreciate these inspections and reviews, not only have they reassured us when my uncle went for respite care but they have also affected where we moved to - I couldn't have comfortably lived on the same street as a care home without great reviews, thankfully the one on our street turned out to be lovely

I think it's a total minefield there are many options and choosing the right one is so difficuly, not having had to go through this but listening to others that have.

My mother needed nursing care 24 years ago but we only had a choice of two homes in our town that could provide the level of care required, I do not know if CQC reports were even available back then.

We were recently asking by my mother in law to help find a home for one of the grandparents. I felt like it was a huge commitment and really a hard thing to be involved in, particularly as it was my husbands grandparent and not directly linked to myself. Due to being far away we had been asked to go in and look at the facilities and check that all of the information matched up before they made a decision. I decided that one of the best ways to see how good a home really is would be to take my children (5 and 7) with me, how people are with children is usually a good indicator. The home we visited was clean and quiet, the staff were friendly and they were really happy to show us around and accomodate and answer questions. The staff deliberetly didn't show us the nursing end of the care home just the residential end as they felt it might upset the kids (little did they know that they are frequent visitors to another home) and I liked their approach and consideration. The big thing for me and worry was that I felt it was good, but they were going to put Granny in it without her or any of the other family members seeing it first. So if they hated it, it would be my fault. In reality the CQC ratings had already given them plenty of information about the home and she has settled really well into it.

Ratings and reports help and provide a backdrop, but visits are crucial to get a feel for the ethos and atmosphere. If you can visit a few homes it gives points of comparison. Such a tricky area, not least as families are so often having to make decisions on behalf of others. We didn’t have much information to go on when we had to look for my Gran some years ago so reports would have been helpful.

I work in an admin role for a care service and can honestly say that the people delivering the care genuinely care for those they support and are proud to provide a life enhancing service. Employers who value and reward their staff fairly will retain the best workers and service levels will remain high. There are too many poorly paid and undervalued people in this sector and little or no support from the present government.

My mum is vast approaching the age of needing exta care, but she really wants to maintain her independence. We've looked at some supported living units but it's hard finding the balance between ensuring she has enough support but without it being intrusive for her. The decision will be hers though, and we'll support mum in any way she needs us to.