Press Release

New inspections raise the bar on dementia care

3 June 2008

A new report published today raises the bar on the care of people with dementia living in care homes.

A new way of inspecting, used by CSCI inspectors for the first time, focuses on the needs of people who cannot easily communicate and gets under the skin of the real relationship between staff and the people they care for. Using the new technique, inspectors observed the interactions between staff and people with dementia in 100 care homes across England.

Launching the report, See me, not just the dementia: Understanding people’s experiences of living in a care home, CSCI Chair Dame Denise Platt said:

“People with dementia are often unable to communicate easily. This new way of inspecting, developed in partnership with the University of Bradford, is unique, and lets us look beyond the surface of routine care practice to understand people’s emotional well-being, and how staff relate to them.

“This is helping us to raise the bar and drive improvements in the quality of care for people with dementia. We have developed the new inspection technique in partnership with the University of Bradford.”

CSCI Chief Inspector Paul Snell added:

“The quality of life for people with dementia living in care homes is hugely affected by the way in which care staff communicate and empathise with them.

“Much depends on a care home’s leadership and ethos, and the quality of training and support given to staff.”

CSCI’s study will contribute to the forthcoming Government consultation on dementia that will have high quality care as a key objective.