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The Commission for Social Care Inspection will increase unannounced spot checks in care homes to help them target poor providers following a change to legislation announced by Care Services Minister Liam Byrne.

The CSCI will also stay in regular contact with providers, who will be required by law to carry out an annual assessment proving they are maintaining high standards.  Care homes with a clear record of delivering excellent services will be freed from red tape to focus their attention on caring for their residents. 

Dame Denise Platt, chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, said:

"People who use social care services tell us they want our inspections to be unannounced, they want to be more involved in telling us what they think of services, and they want us to be tougher on poor services and bad practice.  These new regulations will help us to be more flexible in targeting our efforts on the services most in need of improvement."

The change follows the launch yesterday of a centralised vetting and barring scheme, which will help force abusers out of the health and social care workforce and keep them out. It also builds on Byrne's decision to extend registration to all care home staff.  The government is also to investigate ways of making it easier for relatives of residents to trigger spot checks anonymously.

Speaking of the changes Byrne said: "Abusers of vulnerable adults should know that there is nowhere for them to hide in our social care workforce. Our older people deserve the very best care we can give them, in a safe environment.”