Just 44% of care homes for the elderly were found to meet minimum standards

Age Concern was responding to a report showing under 50% of care homes for the aged meet medicine handling standards.

Inadequate training of care home staff is putting elderly residents at risk, the charity claims.

Director General Gordon Lishman says he is "appalled" at the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) findings.

Those not meeting basic requirements are failing in their duty of care Gordon Lishman Age Concern Care home residents 'at risk'

"The key issue is that many social care staff still don't have the proper training," he said.

"The government must act now to make the training and qualification of care home staff an urgent priority.

"Those not meeting basic requirements are failing in their duty of care and putting vulnerable older people needlessly at serious risk."

According to the NCSC, just 44% of homes for older people were meeting minimum standards under the Care Standards Act 2000.

Training available

Ian Garcia is marketing director for Protocol Training, which provides training in medicine administration and infection control.

He believes a widespread lack of knowledge among elderly care homes about the training programmes available has contributed to the problem.

"There is a lot of ignorance," he said. "A lot of care homes don't realise that our training programmes are funded by the government, so they are free and they are run in work.

"I think the fact they don't know about these free training programmes is a major concern, especially when you think that the age profile of this country is increasing all the time.

"Access to qualified staff is a big issue and it is very important.

"We all hear of cases in homes where medicine is administrated incorrectly. We want to make sure that doesn't happen."

Responding to the NCSC report, Health Minister Stephen Ladyman said: "We expect the Commission for Social Care Inspection to continue working with homes that failed to meet the regulations in order to drive up standards.