How can self funders find good care services?

This month SCIE published People who pay for care: quantitative and qualitative analysis of self-funders in the social care market. This report found that people who have to fund their own care often lack good quality information to enable them to make an informed choice, particularily when their need arise due to a rapid change in circumstances. People who self fund will often not have access to an independent assessment of their needs and the only advice they receive from their local council can be a list of care homes in the area.
More comment on this is available from Melanie Henwood, author of one of the studies in the above report, in the Guardian 18 January.