The manager of a Burton care home has said news that care homes in Burton and South Derbyshire are bucking the national trend when it comes to standards is amazing after being horrifically shocked when national figures found four in ten care homes are not fit for purpose.

Nicola Stephenson, manager of Abacus Care Home in Rolleston Road, said that news that just under one in seven care homes in Burton and South Derbyshire requires improvement is promising and she hopes it will give people faith in care homes.

She spoke after it was revealed that care homes on a national scale are failing, with four in ten being declared as unfit for purpose.

After analysing the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection results of 55 care homes in Burton and South Derbyshire, it was revealed that only 14.5 per cent received a requires improvement rating.

Miss Stephenson said: "I think that it is amazing for the size of Burton to manage to achieve higher success rates while working with the authorities, it means we are going right somewhere.

"When I heard about the national results I was shocked. I know that the CQC are making inspections tighter and more in depth than previous years but those results are horrific and it means that a lot of people are doing things wrong or the CQC is not inspecting things properly.

Nicola Stephenson, pictured left here with administrator Jeanette Bower, said the number of Burton care homes with good CQC ratings is amazing

"The problem is that requirements are changing all the time and different inspectors look for different things but you just have to do your best. Mistakes do happen but you have to correct them and don’t hide them, but obviously most of it is down to what happens on the day of the inspection.

"For me, I am conscious all the time that we are under scrutiny and there is a taboo about care homes but that only motivates me to strive for better standards."

Abacus care home, was rated good when it was last inspected in October 2016 and Miss Stephenson said she tries to go the extra mile to ease the fears of relatives who have concerns about putting their loved ones in care.

She said: "People do make assumptions about the care in care homes but I always ask that people come into homes with open minds. In return I am always as open as I can be with families and try to reassure people as much as I can that their loved ones will be taken care of.

"We have a happy home, we work hard and try to go the extra mile and I have to hope that it gives people faith in the care system."

Lisa Beard, chief officer at Age UK Burton, said: “We welcome any news that our local care homes are pro-actively making improvements to the care and support they offer in their homes and this news will certainly be welcomed by older people and their relatives that are in residential care homes or in the process of looking at care homes.

"As I have said before there should be nothing to hide and care homes should welcome the scrutiny to make sure excellent standards are in place, maintained and continuously monitored."

Lisa Beard from Age UK Burton said care homes should have nothing to hide

Since October 2014, the CQC has inspected adult social care services using an Ofsted-style system.

Of 5,361 reports published this year, 38 per cent received the worst two ratings. Just 86 homes were outstanding. Another 262 were rated inadequate, leaving 9,000 residents with no guarantee of being protected from harm.

Last month the CQC published a major report, which suggested that out of 14,900 care homes 22.5 per cent were failing. However, the figures related to reports since October 2014 rather than being broken down by year.