Care Home Watch UK Background

Whilst this website sets out to describe the failings in the care homes industry we feel that it is important to stress that, without doubt, there are numerous excellent care homes throughout the country that provide a very caring and efficient service.

However, when a new Care Consortium or Care Provider takes over the running of an existing well run care home things can sometimes change very rapidly. And so it is vital that the relatives and friends of people in residential nursing homes be aware of this

Also, the CQC does not lay down a minimal level of staffing requirement, in this context we are referring to ‘care assistants’ and ‘healthcare assistants’, but only uses the term ‘adequate’ staffing. This can lead to the horror of one care assistant being instructed to look after far too many people. It also leads to ‘burn-out’ and good vocational carers leaving the profession

Chris Pitts has worked in the Care Industry for 38 years. He purposely chose to stay working at the level of nursing assistant / care assistant because he saw that present system of hierarchy was not working. He experienced people coming into the profession who were clearly not vocational. Indeed the motivation seemed very much, to Chris, to be seen as a career for the sake of personal gain. The sheer amount of times he experienced people doing their training for no other reason than to get away from the ‘dirty, smelly patient,’ and get behind a desk and delegate, crippled any hopes he had of pursuing a career in Care.

Chris has written a small booklet about his experiences called ‘ The Caring Game’ and is at present working on a more in depth study. This will involve looking at the reasons for the abuse and neglect that took place in the 60’s 70’s and 80’s. One of the areas that he will talk about is that during the 1970’s recession when unemployment was high, many people totally unsuited to Care work came in to the profession simply to earn a wage. Since those days an ocean of complexity has been born out of this vexed, dreadful human problem.

Chris sees that today elderly people who have been ‘risked’ by their relatives to reside in residential homes are experiencing heartbreak and fear on a unprecedented scale. Indeed, it would not be untrue, as far as Chris is concerned, to talk about a virtual ‘holocaust of abuse taking place behind the closed doors of some professing nursing and care homes.’ Chris invites all those who feel the same sense of hopelessness and despair that he does, to respond to this blog and campaign for better inspectorate facilities and more community involvement in the visiting and support of the elderly in residential nursing care.

Ron is married, with a wife and five grown-up children, eleven Grandchildren and four Great-Grandchildren.

He has been in business, and an employer, for most of his working life and is now semi-retired from his business in Colchester town centre, but is remaining in his post as secretary of Colchester Retail/business Association.

Ron is a committed Christian and is currently Churchwarden at a Colchester town centre church.

He has been a Borough Councillor: twice elected at Southend during the 1970s, and twice elected at Colchester Borough Council since 2010.

Ron met Chris Pitts in 2002 :Ron says; ‘At first I found Chris’ accounts of his experiences in care work harrowing, even unbelievable. I now know, after researching further, that his experiences have been strongly reflected in alarming detail in Press reports over recent years, which confirm that the care industry is in rapid decline and that many good vocational care workers, who do 90% of all the hands-on work, are being placed in intolerable situations and dare not speak out for fear of victimisation.
‘I soon became involved with his passion for creating a website to independently help carers working in the care industry to overcome their difficulties described above’

Using Chris’ many years experience as a care worker we have put together what you see in Care Homes Watch UK. You will need to view all the pages on the website to get a complete picture of what has been wrong with the care homes system for so many years which, in many cases, still exist today.

I have used my many years experiences as a Borough Councillor, a business man, a family man, and my faith, to help Chris achieve his objectives.’
Many of the press reports referred to above are included on the ‘Media Reports’ page of this website.