A social care champion has given a “cautious welcome” to a new ratings system for care homes and home care services in Wales.
But Mario Kreft MBE, chair of Care Forum Wales, believes it has been introduced too soon without sufficient safeguards or proper funding.
As a result, he fears some care homes and domiciliary care companies will be unfairly labelled as failing organisations.
Under the new system, care homes and home care services will be graded on four different aspects of care.
Inspections by regulators Care Inspectorate Wales will focus on well-being, care and support, leadership and management and the environment at the home.
Care homes will then be legally obliged to display their ratings at the home and online.
According to the Welsh Government, they hope the new system will improve standards across the sector.
While supporting the idea behind it, Mr Kreft has concerns about the speed of the implementation and the unfairness of the post code lottery of social care funding in Wales.
He said: “In principle, we like the idea of promoting quality in the social care sector in a way that the public can understand, so we’re giving the ratings system a cautious welcome but with some important caveats.
“Unfortunately, there is a total disconnect in terms of resources because Wales is blighted by a post code lottery of fees that promotes unfairness and inequality.
“If you’re having a national ratings system for care homes you also need a national framework for fees to provide care.
“For example, there’s a massive difference between the fees paid by Denbighshire County Council and the ones in neighbouring Conwy.
“A care home on the Conwy side of the Foryd Bridge in Rhyl will get £9,000 a year per person more than a home in Denbigh.
“It’s also a bit of blunt instrument. You can be a hair’s breadth away from needing improvement or a hair’s breadth away from being rated excellent and you still get the same rating and the system does not take any account of resources.
“In some parts of Wales there are care home receiving £12,000 per resident more than others but they’re all being rated against the exactly the same criteria.
“If a care home in the neighbouring county is getting an extra £400,000 a year that will undoubtedly have an influence on the ratings.
“Everyone knows that keeping staff, offering them careers and paying them above the real living wage costs money.
“Despite this gaping chasm in eligibility for funding they are subjected to the same criteria in terms of ratings and subjected to the same regulatory regime
“”It’s making life very hard for care homes on the wrong end of the post code lottery who are struggling to survive. It’s going to be a lot more challenging for them to be rated as excellent.
“Another issue is that this could give the wrong impression about a particular care home. This is a rating based on a given day.
It may not be a typical day. There could be homes that fall foul of the new system if they’re having a bad day. Things can go wrong and if that’s the day the inspector comes in, you have to publicise that.
“If you’re really having a bad day the inspector’s report could have serious consequences for the home in question.
“We are doing our very best to make it work but it’s not being implemented in the way we would have done.
“The ratings should reflect the funding of the local authorities and health boards and our priority should be to get a level playing field in terms of funding so that it does not discriminate between the have and the have nots.
“You can’t have a fair ratings system without parity of funding. Without a baseline in terms of funding for vulnerable people who need social care, you can’t expect consistency in the standards of care.
“Most of the local authorities and the health boards in Wales are flouting Welsh Government guidelines and they are promoting inequality through this iniquitous post code lottery of funding.
“By and large, the level of funding for individuals is not assessed according to their actual needs but rather on what the council or the health board wish to pay.
“That’s why it’s essential that we have a national framework to decide funding for vulnerable people rather than persisting with a dysfunctional system that perpetuates discrimination against them.
“We see this as one of the major flaws of bringing in the new ratings when the social care sector is so fragile and the funding so fragmented. Wales should not have a system that promotes inequality.”
