How to reform the care home system

The care home residents had been left on the landing in wheelchairs. That was the sight that greeted me as I walked up the stairs of the nursing home I was visiting in Wembley, north London. From above, sawdust fell as builders blithely went about their business, fixing the roof. Apart from the drilling there was no noise. No one cried for help. No one complained. It was as if no one expected anything different.

The abandonment of the elderly in residential care was driven home recently by revelations of the full extent of failing homes. This year, forty per cent – yes, forty per cent – were found wanting by the regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Of a whopping sample of 5,300, 2,000 care homes were found inadequate or in need of improvement. Inspectors discovered the all-too familiar stories we wish we could consign to a Dickensian past. Men and women left soiled or locked in windowless rooms.