‘Scrap plans for single regulator’

Government plans to create a single regulator for adult social care and health should be ditched because of the differences between the two sectors, a King’s Fund report said this week.

The study warned against the merger of the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

Social care was made up of more and smaller providers than health, and was also means-tested and locally accountable, unlike the free, universal NHS, making common regulation difficult, it said.

It also called for a large investment in health commissioning skills, saying they were scarce and were a necessary condition of a well-functioning market.