Press Release

New survey asks public to tell watchdog their experiences of choosing care

23 January 2007  

A new survey is inviting thousands of older people and their relatives to recount their experiences of choosing a care home.

Social care watchdog CSCI wants to find out how much help and information people were given before choosing a care home for themselves, a relative or a friend. The survey is on CSCI’s website at www.csci.org.uk/faircontract and will run for the next five weeks until 28 February. It takes ten minutes to complete and is anonymous.

David Walden, CSCI’s Director of Strategy, said:
“Choosing and buying a new home is one of the biggest decisions many people make in their lives. Choosing the right care home for you or a relative or friend in their old age is no less important. People tell us that they want to make informed choices about what’s available in their area. Yet, as we pointed out in our recent State of Social Care report, many people do not get the information, help and support they need to make informed choices.

“Our survey covers subjects such as whether people have received assessments about the sorts of care they might need (which is a legal right); whether they get enough information to help them choose between the care homes on offer; and whether they were told about any costs to them of paying for a place in a care home.

“With the launch of this online survey, we are encouraging people to tell us about the type of information they had access to, which we hope will make the experience better for older people and their relatives in the future. We will be reporting on this issue later in the year.”