MORE than one in five care homes in Warrington are substandard according to an older people’s charity.

Analysis by Independent Age found that, of the 46 care homes in the town inspected by the Care Quality Commission, 21.7 per cent were ordered to improve or found to be inadequate.

While seven care homes in Warrington were ordered to improve, a further three – 6.5 per cent – were placed in special measures after being rated inadequate by the CQC.

Independent Age found that the north west was the UK’s worst performing region for the proportion of satisfactory care homes.

And only six of 22 other local authority areas in the north west – Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, Manchester, Salford, Tameside and Rochdale – had a higher percentage of care homes in special measures.

Margaret Maclin, Warrington Borough Council’s head of safeguarding and quality assurance division, said: “Whilst care quality in Warrington is better than most places in the north west, we are concerned that one in five care homes locally have not achieved a good CQC rating in the last 12 months and that a small number have been rated inadequate.

“We commission care from a range of local providers and work closely with Warrington NHS Clinical Commissioning Group and the CQC to monitor and improve the quality of care received.

“The council helps to promote good practice, and delivers a range of training as well as support a local forum to promote and share good practice and support Dignity in Care champions within homes.

“We also undertake regular inspections of our own, and any home which requires improvement is placed on an improvement plan which is monitored closely until the required actions are implemented.

“Where improvements are not made, we can and will take contractual action.”

Only one care home in the town – Padgate House – is owned by Warrington Borough Council and is rated as good by the CQC.

Others are privately owned or managed by third sector organisations.

Cllr Pat Wright, Warrington Borough Council’s executive board member for adult social care, pointed to issues in care homes being able to recruit and retain staff and called for the government to take action.

She said: “Most of Warrington’s care homes are rated good and the staff working in them are committed to delivering an excellent level of care.

“Adult social care now accounts for 40 per cent of the council budget, and we are doing all we can to protect the most vulnerable.

“We work on an ongoing basis with both the people who use services and their families to identity and concerns about the quality of care and support improvements.

“But the local care market is experiencing many of the issues that have been identified nationally, including the recruitment and retention of staff in the care sector.

“The crisis in social care is no secret – three independent health think thanks have all estimated a funding gap of £2.6bn by 2020.

“We need to see urgent government action.”