About the state of care
This report looks at the quality of health care and social care in 2009. It is the first time we can give a complete picture of health care and adult social care in England.
About this report
A part of our role as regulator is to take an in-depth look at the state of care nationwide and produce a report for Parliament on what we find.
This year's report is the first time that we can give a complete picture of health care and adult social care in England – including how well the two sectors work together.
We’ve highlighted some of the findings from this report, published February 2010, to show you:
- what’s working well
- where care services need to improve
- We also show how our work over the next five years will help to tackle challenges around improving services.
- View our video introducing the State of Care
Key points
Here are the key points from our report at a glance about the state of health care and social care in England in 2009:
Care that meets each person’s individual needs
- More people who use care services should have choice and control about their care.
- Care should be designed around a person's needs and preferences, rather than around systems and processes.
- It's important that people are given the right kind of information, at the right time, so that they can make informed decisions about their care.
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Joining up different types of care
- Many people who use health care also use social care.
- We want to see different types of services working together in a more coordinated way.
- When people use more than one type of service, the care they receive should feel ‘joined-up’.
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The quality of care nationwide
- Overall, health care and social care services continued to improve in 2009.
- A small minority of services fell below minimum standards of quality and safety.
- The quality of care sometimes varied considerably between different services and different areas of the country.
- Good practice in safety, safeguarding people and staff training was not being followed widely enough.
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More people who use care services should have choice and control about their care.
We want to see different types of services working together in a more coordinated way.
