Liberal Democrat County Councillors have expressed their concern that Surrey residents may be living in “unsafe” accommodation after it was revealed that six care homes which have contracts with Surrey County Council have been rated as “Unsafe” by the Care Quality Commission.

 We recognise that the County Council does not send new residents to care homes that have received a poor rating and that it puts in place an action plan to improve care homes which have received this rating and have existing Surrey residents.

However, it should concern us all that we have Surrey residents receiving care packages paid for by the County Council who are living in accommodation which is rated as “Unsafe” by the Care Quality Commission.

We fully support the County Council’s corporate priority which sets out that residents should ‘live and age well’, but believe that it is not possible to age well in an environment that has been deemed unsafe by a national regulator.

As a result, we have called on the County Council to pro-actively work with care homes and to take immediate action to improve standards where necessary to ensure that no Surrey resident in receipt of a care package paid for by the County Council is living in a home that has been rated as unsafe.