Senior health experts this week urged local authority bosses, private firms and healthcare chiefs to join forces and restore public confidence in Britain's under-fire care homes.

The Commission on Improving Dignity in Care for Older People – a joint project involving the Local Government Association, the NHS Confederation and Age UK – said it was issuing its ‘call to arms' to all organisations involved in the sector to stamp out poor practices following years of concerns over the quality of elderly care.