Guide to finding a care home

Choosing a care home for your relative is one of the most important decisions you could make and you need to know that the homes you consider provide high quality care. This factsheet has been developed by Carehome Selection to help explain how care homes are assessed and regulated.

Care homes and the Care Quality Commission

All care homes that provide personal care or nursing care need to be registered with Care Quality Commission (CQC). It is a criminal offence to operate an unregistered care home. The CQC has two main roles – the inspection of care homes and registrations of homes within different categories of care.

Registration of care homes

Care homes are only allowed to admit residents who fall within the categories for which they are registered. There are two main types of home providing 24-hour care for older people and these are firstly registered according to the type of service that they provide:

1. Care homes providing personal care
2. Care homes providing nursing care

Each home also has to register the category of people for whom they will provide their service – these are shown below. A home may be registered in more than one category.

Registration categories

Type of service	Abbreviation used on referral
Old age only	PC
Dementia care	DE
Physical disability, under 65	PD
Sensory impairment	SI
Learning disability	LD
Mental health	MD
Alcohol dependecy	A
Drug dependency	D

Inspection of care homes

All registered homes are subject to inspection to ensure they meet national minimum standards. All homes will be subject to a key inspection within six months of opening or changing ownership, and periodically thereafter. The key inspection is unannounced. It is the most thorough type of inspection. An inspection report is produced after a key visit along with a service quality rating. The report is published on the CQC website and is accessible to all. In addition to key inspections homes are required to complete an annual quality assurance assessment. This is a self-assessment form in which the homes inform CQC how they are meeting the needs of their residents. Some homes that are rated excellent or good may not receive a site visit for up to three years. These homes will be subject to an annual service review which is an analysis of all the information CQC has gathered about a home since their last key inspection.

Quality Ratings

Up until October 2010, the care home was given a “star rating” following their key inspection, with three stars being the maximum score for an excellent standard of care. These ratings were discontinued in October 2010, but you may still find some references to the system and therefore they are shown below for your information only.

Stars	Rating	Detail
	Three stars	Excellent
	Two stars	Good
	One star	Adequate
	No stars	Poor
	Not yet rated	No recent key inspection or newly registered
	Suspended rating	Home not meeting required standard CQC proposing to cancel registration