A watchdog has said that all four councils in the Bristol area are performing well in their provision of social care services for adults.

But eight care homes in the area currently have 'zero star' ratings, meaning the quality of the care provided is regarded as 'poor' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). They were not named in the report.

The CQC made a national assessment of 148 councils' provision of social care services to adults, including an update on the performance of 24,000 care homes, home care agencies, nursing agencies and shared lives schemes looking at whether quality is improving.

All four local authorities for the area – Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire and Bath & North East Somerset – received an overall rating of performing 'well'.

A rating of 'well' means an authority is consistently delivering above the minimum requirements for people. Of the zero star establishments, five were in North Somerset, two were in Bristol and one in B&NES, with none in South Gloucestershire.

Bristol City Council was praised in the report for a range of measures including patient rehabilitation, home support, patient assessment and carer support.

The report said it needed to improve issues including access to services for people with learning disabilities, the levels of breaks available for carers, targets for the number of people receiving a review, and the number of people admitted into residential care.

Councillor Bev Knott, Cabinet Member for Care and Neighbourhoods, said: "The city council, with its partner agencies, is continuing to deliver improved health and social care services to some of the most vulnerable members of our community, helping more people to continue to live independently.

"In particular, inspectors highlighted a growth in very sheltered housing; direct payments and support services including intermediate and domiciliary care.

"We recognise that we need to continue to improve services, particularly in certain areas, and must do this at a time of significant budgetary pressures. But the findings of CQC confirm we are making real progress and delivering the quality of services people have a right to expect."

The council said placements in homes rated as 'good' are 68.98 per cent; as 'excellent' 7.42 per cent, as 'adequate' 22.75 per cent and as 'poor' 0.6 per cent. A total of 0.24 per cent are in homes not yet rated by CQC.

Nationally, the CQC said a third of councils have more to do in terms of caring for people with dignity and respect and one in four were rated as only adequate in terms of giving people choice and control over care.

Too many councils were purchasing a significant proportion of residential and nursing home care from providers rated as poor or adequate and, in care homes for older people, one in five providers failed to meet the standard on social contact and activities, the CQC said.