Finding the Best Care Homes Nearby

Finding the best care home for you or your loved one can be both an emotional and confusing time. There are so many things to consider, including location and price, but finding what you need to make an informed decision can be a long and arduous process.

At the top of the list of key factors when deciding the best home for your needs is, of course, ensuring that the home keeps its resident’s safe. Unfortunately, over the last few years, this has become increasingly difficult to be sure of, as up-to-date information has become increasingly scarce.

It is with this in mind that OpenScore has been created - an independent tool you can trust to provide you with the most up-to-date data on the quality of care provided in a residential or nursing home. 

The CQC

Previously, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has been the place people have come to rely on for such information, with inspection reports readily available on their website that seek to answer five key questions about a service: Is it safe? Is it caring? Is it effective? Is it responsible? And finally, is it well-led?

The home is given an individual rating for all of these aspects, and then an overall rating that places the home into one of four categories – Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, and Inadequate.

So what’s the problem?

In 2024, the government published a review by Dr Penny Dash that questioned the operational effectiveness of CQC, and the results were alarming.

There has been a sharp decline in the number of inspections and assessments that are being carried out on care services across the country:

• The average age of a CQC report is now three years and four months

• 21% of ‘Requires Improvement’ ratings given to care homes are averaging more than two years old

• Since 2015, the time taken to carry out a re-inspection after an ‘Inadequate’ rating has increased from 87 days to 136 days.

This data tells us that not only are CQC’s reports of Good or Outstanding homes less relevant than ever before, but they are also failing to support the homes in need of improvement, which means standards of care in residential and nursing homes have stagnated.

What are the CQC doing about this?

The CQC was given a number of recommendations to improve both the technological and logistical operations of the regulator, and they have started work on implementing these in practice.

However, safety in a care home environment is never something that can be taken for granted, and it may be time for a fresh approach to gathering the information required to give you and your loved ones confidence that a home is right for you. This is where OpenScore comes in.

Tell us about OpenScore

Working alongside CQC, OpenScore is a free supplementary tool designed to help you assess each home quickly, using the most up-to-date information available. With a focus on transparency and freshness of information, it collates over 60 data points from the home to produce a score between 0 and 10 that reflects the quality of care offered.

Whilst taking into account its latest CQC rating, the key data points range from transparency over fees, to the breadth of dining options on offer, and also how environmentally friendly the home is.

With trust in CQC reports falling, OpenScore is ready to step in and help you to be able to make more informed choices when deciding where to place yourself or your loved one.

Find out more about data with Openscore

 Where can I find the information about a home?

OpenScore is already being adopted by thousands of providers, showcasing their scores on their own websites and care directories, such as Autumna.

To help find the right home for you, OpenScore has provided a comprehensive map that highlights all homes around your chosen region, and a link to more information about those homes, to make it quicker than ever to compare and assess the best options in your area.

Visit the map now to find care homes near you.