Survey on the standard of care in rest homes

I issued a report in December 2009 looking at the effectiveness and efficiency of arrangements to check the quality and safety of services provided by rest homes. 

Many of our most vulnerable older people are being cared for in rest homes up and down the country, so I promised that we would come back and review progress in this area. My staff are working on this progress report now. 

After the 2009 report was released, I personally received a number of phone calls from relatives and carers of rest home residents. They shared a number of areas of concern with me. 

This time, I am asking older people, family members, carers and staff in rest homes for their views. I am keen to know what has changed for the better since we did our first report in 2009, but also where improvements are still needed.

We have a short survey for you to complete if you have any views that you would like to share with us on this matter.

The end result of this work will be a report that is presented to Parliament which will be publicly available. Any information from your survey response that we use in the report will remain anonymous and will only be used in a general way. If we wish to include specific examples taken from the information you provide we will only do so if you have provided your contact details and we have sought your permission for this. We will give you the opportunity to see what parts of your response we would like to use in our report before we use it. 

I would like to thank you for your time and for contributing to this important area of work. 

Lyn Provost
Controller and Auditor-General