Autumna, the UK’s largest and most comprehensive independent care directory, is transforming how care homes demonstrate the quality of their services by enabling them to show objective real-time aggregated scores on their websites.
The game-changing initiative has been made possible with the development of a Website Widget for its OpenScore platform. The Website Widget is being made available to every care home across the UK to enable them to demonstrate a live, independent, trusted quality score out of 10 to their website visitors.
OpenScore, which was launched by Autumna in March, is a digitally led innovation that provides an aggregate score from multiple data points to provide the UK’s first live scoring system for social care. The OpenScore Website Widget will provide an easy-to-understand rating on care homes’ websites, in much the same way as trades display their Checkatrade ratings.
“With the CQC admitting that its average rating is 3 years 8 months out of date, care providers have been struggling – and even going under – without relevant, objective assessments with which to communicate the quality of their care to families. The OpenScore Website Widget addresses this vacuum, giving care homes a simple, independent, reliable and up-to-date score to evidence how they perform across a range of metrics,” explains Debbie Harris, founder and Managing Director of Autumna.
“The OpenScore Website Widget also empowers care seekers, by giving them an at-a-glance overview of the quality of care and service within a care home,” she adds. “With the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care admitting that the CQC is not fit for purpose, both care providers and care seekers have been let down by the lack of reliable assessments. Unfortunately, it’s a situation that is not likely to be resolved any time soon.
“The OpenScore Website Widget fills that void by enabling care homes to display their OpenScore rating on their websites. At the same time it gives care seekers – who now conduct more than 90% of their care home decision-making process online – an easy-to-understand, at-a-glance, standardised ranking to enable them to compare different providers .”
OpenScore was developed by Autumna in collaboration with some of the UK’s leading care associations, financial institutions, academia and care providers. These include Care England, LaingBuisson, Let’s Go Create, Virgin Money, Stephens Scown solicitors, Person Centred Software, Legal & General and The Care Software Providers Association (CASPA).
“Choosing the right care home is becoming an increasingly complex process for families. At Boutique Care Homes, we are proud to be one of the first to embrace the OpenScore widget, reflecting our commitment to transparency. It aligns perfectly with our values of openness, providing transparent and honest care,” comments Carl Roberts, Associate Sales & Marketing Director of Boutique Care Homes. “The OpenScore widget offers care seekers a valuable tool to compare providers, bridging the gap when a CQC inspection has yet to take place or hasn’t occurred for some time. It reassures families that quality care is consistently being maintained, helping them make informed decisions in their loved ones’ best interests.”
“Crucially, it will also help to drive up the quality of care as there is a real incentive for providers to improve their services with the insights from data and customer feedback,” stresses Harris. “A higher score indicates better quality care and a more conducive workplace for delivering excellent care, helping providers to attract and retain both residents and staff, which will in turn drive up standards in social care across the UK.
“OpenScore also provides the NHS and commissioning bodies with a live indicator of the quality of care, helping discharge and social care teams find appropriate care for the elderly.”
OpenScore ratings are already available on more than 2,000 premium care home listings on the Autumna directory. “We are already seeing evidence that care seekers are using OpenScore to help inform their decisions,” says Harris.
The OpenScore Website Widget is now being made available to every care home in the country, providing a universal, independent, trusted, real-time quality assessment across the UK. The launch price is just £99 + VAT for the first year.
OpenScore and the OpenScore Website Widget will be rolled out to domiciliary care providers and the retirement living sector in 2025.
About the OpenScore Widget
Care homes can customise the OpenScore Website Widget to display the information they want to show:
About OpenScore
OpenScore provides a numeric score and a traffic light indication of the quality of care at the care home:
OpenScore bases its assessment on multiple GDPR-compliant data points that are updated every 24 hours. These include:
- Regulator ratings
- Live ratings
- Fees
- Manager bio
- Dining choices
- Infection prevention and control (IPC)
- Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)
- Data freshness
About Autumna
Autumna is the UK’s largest and most comprehensive later life living and elderly care directory. Specialising in the self-funding market, it helps families and individuals make informed choices and access higher standards of care. Proudly independent, Autumna provides completely impartial advice and does not take referral fees from providers. It aims to improve transparency and standards across the entire elder care sector. Following its establishment in 2019, over two million care seekers each year now access Autumna’s directory of over 26,000 care providers.
Debbie Harris is Managing Director and Founder.
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