Almost a third of region's care homes need improvement

West Northamptonshire Council was told inspectors found 29% of care homes in the area "require improvement"

Almost three in ten care homes in a council area were given a "requires improvement" rating, according to the care watchdog.

Care Quality Commission (CQC) figures showed of the 208 care providers inspected in West Northamptonshire, 29% were given this grade.

Only one home in the area was given the lowest rating of "inadequate".

The council said waiting times between inspections were too long and the gradings did not present an accurate view of all the providers.

The figures were discussed at an adult social care scrutiny meeting of West Northamptonshire Council on Wednesday.

It heard 64% of care homes have a "good" rating and 7% were "outstanding", the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Concerns were raised that the CQC took three years to inspect a provider in West Northamptonshire, which was longer than some neighbouring authorities.

'Demonstrate improvement'

Stuart Lackenby, executive director of people services at the council, said: "It's really concerning because CQC is supposed to be the arbiter of what good looks like.

"When the public go out to identify a home for their loved ones they'll look at CQC reports which means the information that they're looking at is not going to be accurate.

"If CQC actually moved quicker and re-inspected our providers we'd be sitting here with probably one of the best CQC profiles in our region."

The meeting heard there were more providers rated as "requires improvement" in West Northamptonshire than the national average.

But it was told the council's own care home inspections team only found minor concerns and there were none with serious defaults.

Kate Terroni, CQC's interim chief executive, said they had committed to increasing the number of inspections so the public "have an up-to-date understanding of quality and providers are able to demonstrate improvement".