Advance in Care Home Standards

4.05.17pm UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 7th Feb 2006

Vincent Cable, MP, welcomed the statement from the government that, in future, care workers will be registered, like nurses. This announcement comes three years after the row over Lynde House in East Twickenham which focused national attention on care standards in residential homes. Since then Vincent Cable and other MPs have been pressing the government to take action to raise standards and to ensure that staff are properly trained and accredited.

Vincent Cable said: "elderly people in homes are entitled to professional standards and dignity. The staff who work in that sector are, for the most part, dedicated people. But confidence has been undermined by a small number of unsatisfactory staff and by care home owners who make money by cutting standards and economising on quality staff".

"I went back to Lynde House to make an Investors in People award in recognition of efforts being made to raise training and staffing standards, but there is a more general problem which the new policy will go some way to address".