A WATCHDOG is to name and shame the country's worst nursing homes, nurseries and care services in a bid to drive up standards.
The Care Inspectorate, which inspects and regulates 14,000 nurseries, care homes and other vital services across Scotland, insists people have a right to know when performance is unacceptable.
The body says those that fall below adequate standards and fail to improve quickly will be highlighted on the inspectorate website and the media will be notified.
Every care service in Scotland is regularly inspected by the inspectorate, mostly unannounced, and is graded across quality themes on a scale from one (unsatisfactory) to six (excellent).
Where services cause concerns, the watchdog inspects more frequently to ensure people are protected. The Care Inspectorate also has powers to enforce change and close a service.
Recent figures show a 3% rise in complaints to the regulator in the second half of last year compared to 2012, with two-thirds of the 1154 complaints being upheld.
Care Inspectorate chief executive Annette Bruton said: "Almost everyone in Scotland will use a care service at some point, and the vast majority perform well. Our specialist inspectors rate more than 80% as good, very good or excellent.
"We publish our inspection reports online but want to be more open and transparent by highlighting services which cause us concern or impress us.
"As well as demanding fast action when services need to improve - or closing them when they don't - we have a duty to inform the public about what we find on inspection."
The best services will also be highlighted.
She said: "We also want to flag up really good practice where services are leading the way towards higher standards for everyone."
The move was broadly backed by Scottish Care, which represents independent social care services in Scotland.
A spokesman said: "We in no way condone or defend poorly performing establishments but we need to be aware that the act of naming and shaming does not in itself improve the quality of care.
"Failures of care, when they occur, can have a catastrophic impact on public confidence.
"In these instances, Scottish Care offers assistance to implement a strategy for support to make sure services are restored to the required standards and we continue to work closely with the service providers and the Care Inspectorate to ensure the highest standards are maintained."
Care services which are provided in a person's home, such as childminders, and services which require confidentiality, such as domestic abuse refuges, will not highlighted to the media, but inspection reports will be published online.
Services will be highlighted when:
l A grade of one or two (unsatisfactory or weak) is given for the quality of care and support on two consecutive inspections;
l Where a service is downgraded to a grade of one or two for the quality of care and support as a result of a complaint and is graded at either one or two for the quality of care and support at its next inspection;
l Where a service is downgraded to a grade of one for the quality of care and support as a result of a complaint and was previously graded at two.
The media will also be told if an improvement notice is served, a notice proposing to cancel registration is served or if registration is cancelled. It will also highlight services when grades of all six (excellent) are given on two consecutive inspections.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article