News

The Department of Health has published draft standards and regulations for home care services in England.

New benchmarks required under the Care Standards Act 2000 will form the basis for inspection by the National Care Standards Commission.

The commission, which begins its work in April next year, will inspect all domiciliary care agencies annually.

Agencies will be given notice if they are not meeting the standards, and if they persist in a breach then they will be prosecuted.

There are approximately 185,000 home care workers, most of which are part-time and from the independent sector. Local authorities purchase 79 per cent of the care.

Health minister Jacqui Smith said: "We want to help people remain independent for as long as possible and recognise that the domiciliary health care sector has an important role to play in doing this, but we need to ensure that the services these people experience are of a proper standard."

* The draft standards and consultation document are available from www.doh.gov.uk/domiciliarycare Responses to the consultation must be received by the end of January next year.