THE cost of care for elderly people has rocketed by 40 per cent in just a year, according to figures.

Dorset is now the tenth most expensive county in the country when it comes to care home cost, and 16th most expensive for nursing home cost.

The figures are published in a report today by care home comparison site TrustedCare. Nationally the report reveals a trend of increasing costs and decreasing quality of care – but in Dorset, while costs are increasing, quality has also improved.

The figures are based on analysis of care home and nursing home costs and CQC reports. Each county is given a ranking for cost and quality.

While Dorset jumped from 17th in 2015 to 10th in 2016 in the price rankings, the quality ranking jumped from 35 to 14. Both rankings are out of 46 English counties.

But one in four nursing homes and one in six care homes in Dorset have a CQC rating of ‘requires improvement’ according to the analysis.

And prices for care homes increased from £567 per week in 2015 to £799 per week in 2016, while nursing home fees rose from £705.30 to £967 in the same period.

Cllr Jill Haynes, Dorset County Council cabinet member for Adult Health, Care and Independence, said: “Although Dorset's performance (for cost and quality of care) is comparatively good we are not complacent. Our aim is to keep this uppermost in our plans and actions. So, we will be consulting widely in the new year on the forthcoming tender for residential and nursing care with existing and new providers - we want to learn any lessons from the past and tackle some issues that prevent both the council and its providers from delivering the very best provision for our local residents. We are also working closely with our Quality Monitoring Team to ensure we respond to any particular issues that arise which could increase as the system is under more pressure in the winter months. In short we take these concerns seriously, we have a clear plan to respond in both the short and medium term.”

Mark Walford, CEO of TrustedCare.co.uk said: “The data shows that there is a complex mix of factors that affect the quality and cost of care, and that there isn’t a strong correlation between areas of affluence and local care quality as one might expect, despite a strong link to price of care. 

"Instead, factors such as local employment markets, local authority commissioning rates and the level of co-operation between local NHS and social care teams are sure to play into the mix. 

"However, the CQC inspections provide only a snapshot of the service at a moment in time, therefore we appeal to those who are using or have used a care service, or their loved ones, to visit our website and share their experiences. This will help us to build an even more detailed picture of the market and help guide those who are in the process of looking for care and support.”