Digital Audit of Care Homes in Shropshire
Websites are often our first port of call when looking to find information on a business or organisation. The same is true of care homes. We looked at the websites of all 120 care homes in Shropshire to see if the information on their websites helped build a picture of what life in the home might be like and if it was useful when considering whether the home could be the right place for a loved one to move into.
We also looked at the Facebook pages of 30 care homes in Shropshire to see what use they were making of social media especially in the context of restrictions on visiting being in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Key Findings
- 20 out of 120 care homes did not have a website although there was often information on other sites such as www.carehome.co.uk.
- 7 websites were not showing the home’s current CQC rating, 8 did not have a link to the report.
- 74 homes had information about their Mission Statement or Philosophy of Care available on their website.
- 13 websites gave an indication of fees – this was most often stating what was or wasn’t included in fees rather than giving an idea of what the fees per week would be. 6 websites gave either full illustrative costs or the starting costs for rooms.
- 9 of the 30 homes chosen did not have a Facebook Page. A further 6 had pages which had not been updated in a long time or had nothing on the page.
- We found 2 care homes which had private groups, one of which had moved away from a public page during 2020.
- The remaining 13 pages which were public were being used for communication with relatives, friends and the wider community and contained pictures of residents and staff and activities within the homes. The pages were also used for recruitment and to give updates on developments at the home for example 3 homes had posted updates and pictures of their completed visitors pods used during the Pandemic.
If you need this report in a different format, please contact us:
enquiries@healthwatchshropshire.co.uk
01743 237884
