FAMILIES in Oxfordshire looking for care for their loved ones are in good hands - if they can afford the eye-watering price tag.

Over the past 18 months, Oxfordshire's ranking based on Care Quality Commission reports has skyrocketed from 45th place out of 47 counties up to 10th.

But at the same time it has become the most expensive county in England for residential care, at an average cost of £954.58 every week.

THE CHEAPEST

OF THE 41 care homes contacted by TrustedCare, the establishment with the lowest rates was Fairfield Residential Home in Banbury Road, Oxford.

The 35-bed independent home is undergoing a rebuild but currently costs an average of £756 per week compared to the Oxfordshire average of £954.58.

Care manager Alison Parry said that as a registered charity, the home was able to charge less because there was ‘no profit required’. But she added that the cost of living in Oxford, as well as the wealth of jobs on offer at the new Westgate Shopping Centre, meant care providers had to pay more for staff.

She said: “Certainly a driving factor has to be housing. People have either got to travel long distances from places like Banbury, or they have to live locally, and that makes it more expensive. It’s a competitive environment.”

THE MOST EXPENSIVE

OXFORDSHIRE'S most expensive care home contacted by Trusted Care was Rush Court, on Shillingford Hill just outside Wallingford.

The 48-bed house, which has its own manicured grounds and offers personal and nursing care, costs an average of £1,475 a week.

Spokeswoman Una Farrell said: "Our fully-qualified nursing staff provide dedicated care 24 hours a day. Nursing care goes beyond the everyday welfare of our residents to include such things as provision of post-operative care and specific nursing support for chronic illness and palliative care.

"We strive for it to be a home from home for our residents. It provides the highest level of service and facilities, with hospitality service that you will find in a top quality hotel."

QUALITY IS GOOD NEWS

Ahead of a government debate on the issue this autumn, Age UK Oxfordshire chief executive Penny Thewlis said the steep improvement in quality was good news.

She said: "This is borne out by the experience of majority of people we are in contact with. Local care providers across the sector are to be applauded for their hard work."

Some 88 per cent of the 202 organisations operating in the county ranked 'good' or 'outstanding' from the CQC, compared to a national average of 80 per cent.

But Ms Thewlis added that good quality had a 'price ticket' attached to it and the affordability of care was a 'massive cause of anxiety' to families looking after a loved one.

She said: "People who contact us are often shell-shocked that they are being asked to pay somewhere in the region of £50,000 a year for residential care.

"This yet again throws into sharp relief the urgent need for a debate about how the costs of care are shared between society and the individual."

Average weekly costs were calculated by comparison website TrustedCare, which contacted 41 homes in Oxfordshire to find out their weekly rates.

In contrast people in Lancashire could expect to pay an average of £531.27 a week for residential care - a total of £22,012.54 less than an Oxfordshire resident each year.

Eddy McDowall, chief executive of the Oxfordshire Association of Care Providers, said the cost of living in Oxfordshire was forcing firms to pay more competitive rates.

He said: "Delivering care in the current climate is a huge challenge. Oxfordshire is an expensive place to live and we also have very few people looking for work.

"On top of that care providers don't operate in an isolated environment and they have costs passed onto them by suppliers; there's a hothouse of costs going round."

People who cannot afford fees in the private care sector receive financial support from Oxfordshire County Council, which pays among the highest rates in the country.

Cowley resident Sandra Hook, 67, has received top-ups to pay for her 104-year-old mother-in-law's care at Triangle Care Home in Wheatley for the past three years.

Her partner of 13 years, Bruce Simmons, 76, is today set to move into Longlands Care Home in Blackbird Leys, which offers specialist care to people with dementia.

She said: "With Bruce I had to let my head rule my heart. With his mum we knew we couldn't look after her; if she had stayed at home with a carer they still would have had to top it up. I couldn't have done without the money. I don't know what would have happened."

West Oxfordshire District Councillor Colin Dingwall single-handedly cared for both of his elderly parents for eight years up until their deaths in 2012.

Instead of funding care home placements, he said, the county council should compensate individuals who give up their jobs to support a loved one.

He said: "For the first four and a half years I didn't get any support and as time went by their care needs were greater and greater.

"If a family member is on a lower-paid job, it might be cheaper for the council to help them; you can't get better care than from your own relative at home."

For more information visit TrustedCare's website here