Service providers face a new inspection regime from this month, with more self-assessment and unannounced inspections, simplified registration procedures and a scoring system based on outcomes.

It is the first stage in the Commission for Social Care Inspection's three-year drive to modernise the regulatory system, set out in Inspecting For Better Lives.

Although 70 per cent of consultation respondents backed the CSCI's proposals, these plans have now been called into question by the government's decision to transfer the CSCI's children's function to Ofsted and merge its adult function with the Healthcare Commission by 2008.

The CSCI will now use provider self-assessments, which will include users' views, to decide how often to inspect a service.

Registration will be streamlined so that home care agencies no longer have to register separately in different places, while services will no longer be scored on the basis of meeting national minimum standards.

Children's services will be rated against the five outcomes in the Children Act 2004 and adult providers against the outcome statements in the national minimum standards.