News

Care home staff may be focusing too much on the physical regulations of the new care standards at the expense of other aspects of care, according to a survey by the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health.

The survey of 150 care home staff finds that while many understood the new regulations on lifts, bedroom sizes and ensuite bathrooms, fewer were aware of the new regulations about meals.

Almost 90 per cent did not fully understand standard 15 under which service users must be offered three full meals each day, at least one of which must be cooked, at intervals of not more than five hours.

Society chief executive Hugh Lowson said that it is easy to see why care homes were worried about the "big budget items", which are going to be difficult to comply with.

"But not all the new standards are expensive and difficult to implement," he said. "Some of the least costly may be the very ones, which make the most difference to residents. We hope that these will not be ignored while staff focus on the more high profile problems," he said.