6 Ways self-funding families can search for outstanding care homes

As someone funding my own care, how can I find an outstanding care home near me?

At Autumna, we aim to make the task of finding elder care easier for families, especially those who are expecting to pay for their own later life care.

A common complaint we hear from callers to our advice line, is that they feel confused by all the information out there. They’re not sure where to look or who to trust.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can use the Autumna website to search for:

1. Type of care (care homes, live-in care, home care)
2. Location of care
3. Care home or domiciliary care availability
4. How much care homes cost per week
5. Outstanding care homes near you
6. Overall profile strength of care providers

1. What types of elder care are available?

First things first, Autumna doesn't just list every care home in the UK, but you can also use it to find other types of care including:

• Home Care
• Live-in Care
• Retirement Living (Integrated Retirement Communities - sometimes know as Assisted Living)

If you're not sure which type of care you need, or which of the 4 buttons on the Autumna homepage to press then try, the “Not Sure?” option below the 4 main buttons or let us make things really simple for you and fill in this short form and our team of elder care experts will do the search for you.

Alternatively, if you know which care option you want then simply click on the appropriate button and start to explore.

Moving on to the next section, we’ll show you how to search by location.

2. Location of care

This bit is all very simple. Just follow the prompt that says “Enter Location or Postcode.” 

You can do a county-based search, or a town or city, and of course you can narrow it right down to a postcode search.

As you type in this information, various places will appear in the right hand side of the search bar.  Just select the one you're looking for.

A results page will appear, such as this:

All very straight forward so far.

Now you will be able to scroll down and view the various services on offer.

Autumna's directory lists every regulated care provider in the UK, however the ones we have the most information on will always appear towards the top of your search.

Before we get to the section on finding the care homes rated as Outstanding by their respective regulatory bodies, lets just take a quick look at some of the other filters you can use.

3. Care home availability

Users of our service often come to us with this question:

“How do I know if a care home has availability?"

After all, what’s the point of researching quality care homes for example, only to find they have no availability for new residents?

At Autumna, we do our best to give you that information - not just for care homes but also, of course, for home care and live-in care agencies.

Using a care home search as an example, here’s what to do...

Click “Care Homes” on the homepage search bar. 

Then, enter the location you want to search for.

When the results appear, you’ll see four orange buttons. 

One of these buttons — the second from the left — is “Availability.”

When you click “Availability” you can select from two options, “Yes” or “Call for Details.”

By choosing “Yes” you will only see care services that have told us they have availability.

If you want to expand your search, choose “Call for Details.” This will display homes that you have to call to find out if they currently have spaces.

4. How much does a care home cost per week?

Again, before we get to our 'Outstanding' care homes, here’s another big question most people want answers to! 

For those who are self-funding long-term care, how much is my care home going to cost per week, is particularly important to know. 

There was a time when care homes kept this as a fairly closely guarded secret until you actually paid them a visit but things are changing and many of Autumna's listings give this information.

So, to use Autumna's filters to find the answer the question "How much do care homes cost per week?" we'll use Devon as the location to run through this example.

Again, the four orange filter buttons will appear after you enter a search.

All you need to do is click “Price,” which is the third button from the left.

Your price options will display underneath, like in this image:

Now you can click your price range of choice, which makes the task of researching much easier for those who are going to be funding their care home residency.

For instance, you could select “£1000-1250” to view care homes that cost this much per week.

The nearest care homes in the £1000-1250 weekly price range will show in the results.

Scroll down to the next image to get an idea of how this will display on your web page. 

As you can see, under “Applied Filters”, the results are narrowed down to your custom price range.

If you want a guide on self-funding care, please read this funding your elderly care article. 

5. Outstanding care homes near me

And so we come to one of the most popular ways families like to search for care homes - and in fact home care agencies - and that is by sorting their search results by “Regulator’s Rating.” In England the regulatory body is the CQC (Care Quality Commission), but Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland also have their own regulatory bodies.

Again it's really easy to filter for Outstanding care providers on Autumna, but don't expect to find lots of them - the very nature of the term Outstanding, means they are going to be rarities. 

For this example we'll use Surrey as our search location.

Then, on the results page, click the “Sort results by” button, and a number of options will be displayed in the drop-down menu including "Regulator's Rating".

Select "Regulator's Rating" and the filter will update your search to show Outstanding care homes at the top of the results list followed by those rated "Good".

You’ll see the rating beside the care home's name and address.

6. Overall profile strength on Autumna

The final way we’re showing you how to search for care homes today is by “Profile Strength.”

By using this filter, the care homes are ordered by the amount of information they have given Autumna. Please don't confuse Profile Strength with the regulators' official rating.

In simple terms though, Autumna's goal is to have every care provider in the UK displaying all the information about their home or service on Autumna, to make it easier for the care seeker to find exactly what the need. It shouldn't be hard for people to find the right care home for their needs and so the more details Autumna has about any particular care provider, the higher their profile score will be.

It's all about transparency and it's all about keeping a care home's online windows and door open to visitors.

To find the care providers with the highest profile scores, click on “Sort results by” again to view the drop-down menu. 

“Profile Strength” is the second option down.

Once you’ve chosen this option, the results will refresh.

As you can see in the example below, the care home with the best profile strength in Buckinghamshire (at the time of writing) is Bletchley House Residential Care and Nursing Home near Milton Keynes, part of the Gold Care group of homes.

Their profile strength is 97%, which gets an “Excellent” rating from us.

Summary

Do you want the process of researching later life care to be easier and less confusing?

When you are paying for your own care, the actual decision making process can be very stressful, we know.

But with the search options on the Autumna website, answering a question like “where are the outstanding care homes near me?” becomes much simpler.

Again, if you want a helping hand with your search, then try filling in this simple form or, if you would just like some friendly advice on your overall options for later life care, then call us on:

Autumna elder care Advice Line 01892 33 53 30

Our thanks to Declan Davey for his help researching and writing this blog.