Care home comparison websites Review and discussion

Government White Paper Chapter 5: “I am happy with the quality of my care and support” We will: work with a range of organisations to develop comparison websites that make it easy for people who use services, their families and carers to give feedback and compare the quality of care providers.

The media debate Concern about manipulation by owners. Aggrieved relatives/employees. Moderation – but by whom? Risk of identifying people because a lot of homes are quite small – consequences. Can’t respond because of information governance issues. That leads to concern about volumes of traffic and distortion of ratings because of small sample. Inability of individuals to participate – or motivation to do so. Many people are saying if we have to have it, it’s not enough on its own. Loss of star ratings seen as negative.

What’s actually happening? NHS Provider Quality Profile hard to find, and not particularly good. Lots of other sites have appeared and include a range of measures: staff; activities; security; privacy; outdoor spaces; food; ‘happiness’ fees etc. Some allow comments as to why ratings have been given. Social Care Institute for Excellence apparently identified over 30 sites – and is launching its own. Some are English only, some extend to other services such as extracare, home care and hospice care. ‘Noise’, inconsistency, claims for supremacy to gain primary position early on in development of market. I found eight that appeared in my searches.

WebsiteNotesListing options collaboration with key members Ipsos Mori questionnaire – under construction £per questionnaire of homes included and extracare Some ratings and comments Adverts! Free £160 + VAT for enhanced on CQC reports, old star ratings and fees Not much activity and info out of date Free “may charge in the future” of homes included Couldn’t find any ratings ‘About us’ page photographs No info about costs, but selling ad space of homes included Only 32 have reviews Free £125 pa premium of homes included and extracare Couldn’t find any ratings Free £0.90 per click under constructionFree with enhanced option TBC of homes and home care Some ratings and comments Free £60 pa premium

What does this mean for us? Lack of activity on any of the sites – what are they doing to motivate customers to add reviews to their sites? Not necessarily about the quality of responses, but who sees them – not many at the moment. Website media packs required. Differences between what is rated between sites and complexity for those of us who do more than care homes. Costs vary and for some will be difficult to justify and work out how to measure. Who will emerge on top and is it worth investing in more than just a basic listing, yet? Plan ahead for how you will drive your customers and criteria upon which you will choose your chosen rating site.

Your care rating – a last word Difference: dual purpose of their methods: – Improve existing service on the basis of a substantially sized sample of individuals. – Drive response rates by encouraging buy-in of participating organisations. – High quality analysis and published comparisons (Ipsos Mori) – Interest generated to drive traffic to the site and encourage further ratings/submissions. Downside for me: residents (and staff) often moan “another questionnaire” and how to dovetail into other internal research activities.