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The government's decision to scrap the Commission for Social Care Inspection 11 months after it was set up has been branded a "farce" by its chair, writes Mithran Samuel.

Denise Platt

Denise Platt also confessed her fears that social care would be marginalised in super-inspectorates for children's and adult services, plans for which were announced in the Budget in March.

She lambasted the government's decision to abolish CSCI so soon after its creation, having previously decided to scrap predecessor body the National Care Standards Commission 17 days after its establishment.

In a wide-ranging discussion, she said: "I don't want to see the farce that we have seen repeated. Social care regulation has had enough turmoil."

She said the government should have waited until CSCI had completed its reforms of the regulation of providers before considering plans to merge its children's function with Ofsted and its adult role with the Healthcare Commission.

She warned that social care could be marginalized in these arrangements, adding: "In bigger institutions with bigger agendas you need to keep the voice of people who are already marginalised at the centre. If the services fail [social care users] there's not a lot of social justice in the world."