John Kennedy’s care home inquiry

Reports are regularly published about the state of the care sector, the prospects for residential care, and the ways they are financed and inspected. This report offers something rather different. Written by John Kennedy, the Director of Care Services at JRF and JRHT, it is a personal inquiry into the care homes sector which houses and cares for 400,000 older people in our country, and in which John has worked for more than three decades.

Drawing on testimony from residents, care workers and their families, this inquiry is an important corrective to a narrative that too often offers blame and criticism, instead of hope and encouragement.

The care home of the future needs to be one in which all are valued and cared for, placed in the hubs of their communities. Yet while we want care that is based on relationships and respect, provided with kindness and compassion, we seem unprepared to follow the logic of our demands.

The challenge John formulates is aimed at all of us. There is no one agency or policy that can improve the situation on its own. It will require a collective effort. The voices and aspirations of residents which shine through this report are a reminder of the potential prize. I am proud to have commissioned this report and commend it to you.