A new report by Independent Age reveals that the quality of care homes has worsened in the last year in more than a third of English local authorities. Independent Age’s figures show that 22.1 per cent of West Sussex’s care homes are failing – down 4.8 points in just a year.

Crawley Borough Council Leader Peter Lamb, responding to the new figures, said:

“Families here in West Sussex need reassurance that vulnerable relatives will be getting the best quality care, but our care homes are failing to provide good quality care – and Tory cuts are to blame.

“Social care is teetering on the edge of a cliff after nine years of Tory cuts to West Sussex’s budget. If Ministers don’t act now, things will get much worse.

“Vulnerable older people and their families deserve better than this: that is why Labour pledged at the last election to invest an additional £8 billion in social care before building a National Care Service for the long term.”