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Community Care minister Stephen Ladyman has said the government will produce new adult placement regulations before the summer recess, writes Derren Hayes. 

With less than a month until MPs suspend formal business until October, campaigners had been concerned the new regulations – which propose regulating adult placement schemes rather than carers themselves – could be delayed.

Speaking at Thursday’s annual National Association of Adult Placement Services conference in Coventry, Ladyman said the timescale was on track and the regulations would be published shortly.

He said the majority of the 66 responses to the consultation were in favour of the proposal and he shared the sector’s anxiety to speed the changes through quickly. A recent NAAPS/Topss England survey found that hundreds of adult placement carers had reduced the care they provided or left the service altogether because of increased regulation (news, page 11, 10 June).

“Changes will lift the burden of regulation from carers and place legal accountability on schemes. They will ensure adult placement activity is covered by regulation to provide protection for service users and enable the provision of a diverse and flexible range of services,” Ladyman said.

John Dixon, social services director at West Sussex, told delegates it was a “scandal” there was only 6,500 adult placements in England. He put the blame for this with councils.

“It’s been too far off local authorities’ agendas. What would the government say if councils didn’t promote foster care? Directors of social services should sleep as uneasily in our beds if we don’t have a quality adult placement scheme as we do if we don’t have a quality fostering scheme.”