Care home safety ratings can’t be trusted, says watchdog boss

The public can no longer trust safety ratings when choosing a care home for elderly parents, the new head of England’s care watchdog has admitted.

Sir Julian Hartley, the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), said the problems applied across NHS hospitals, care homes and other health and social care facilities. The regulator has “lost its way” with many of its reports now years out of date, he said.

A new IT system brought in to streamline the inspection process didn’t work, meaning that reports were lost and information could not be recorded. In some cases the system failed to note actions in responses to safety concerns raised with the CQC so staff are having to go back over a backlog of 5,000 alerts.

Hartley said the system had been “a complete failure in terms of what it set out to achieve”. A review has been launched and he promised it would be made public.

He aid the issue was a matter of public confidence. “If you’re thinking about where to put your mum in a care home you want to have reliable information that’s up to date. Effectively the CQC is not delivering on its operational performance. It’s not delivering for people that use services and patients.”

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Source: The Times, 1 February 2025