One in eight adult social care services does not have a registered manager in place, the Care Quality Commission has revealed as it launched a crackdown on the issue.
The regulator said 3,030 locations that provide adult social care services – out of approximately 24,000 – were not fulfilling regulatory requirements to have a registered manager in place. In total, 3,935 health or social care services did not have a registered manager, a quarter of which had not had one in place for at least two years, revealed a paper to last month’s CQC board meeting from chief executive David Behan.
Behan said this was “unacceptable” and that analysis of inspection findings had shown that adult care services without a registered manager (RM) were more likely to be failing to meet essential standards than those with an RM in place.
To date, the CQC has responded to the issue by writing to providers, informing them of the need to appoint an RM; it has served just one warning notice. In his paper to the board, Behan said the regulator needed to take “more effective and robust action” on the issue.
Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, not having a registered manager is an offence that the CQC can take criminal action against, including issuing a caution or a fixed penalty notice of up to £4,000, or prosecuting the provider. Behan said it would write to providers who have not had an RM for at least two years at any of their services to say that they face being fined from October onwards.
It will then move on to tackling services that have not had an RM in place for at least a year.
The CQC will also increase its monitoring of services on whether they have an RM in place so it is alerted whenever a service has gone without a registered manager for six months. Providers would also be told to ensure that RMs apply to cancel their registration when they cease employment.
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