The chief inspector of the Commission for Social Care Inspection today insisted that its merger with the Healthcare Commission does not signal a “takeover”, writes Polly Neate.

David Behan

Speaking exclusively to Community Care, David Behan insisted that one organisation would be created by the merger and it would have a new name incorporating its social care remit. He added that the Department of Health had already agreed to this.

It emerged in the Budget last week that the two organisations would merge and that the children’s social care function of the CSCI would merge with Ofsted to create a single children’s services inspectorate.

At the time Dame Denise Platt said she was “disappointed” by the news and added: "We are very concerned that the message sends further upheaval to the 1.6 million people who use social care in England, their families, and the eight million unpaid carers in the UK.”

Today Behan said: “Last week we were disappointed, frustrated and angry. This week we have had to move on from that.”

“What’s really important is that the work we had begun on modernising the way we regulate and inspect social care continues and that we deliver those changes so that they are secure for the future whatever organisation they go into.”

He insisted: “We are not being de-railed by this.”

Behan added that it was vital the CSCI was involved with discussions about how to take the merger forwards to ensure social care’s identity was not lost

Behan - a former president of the Association of Directors of Social Services - stressed that the merger would increase the significance of the role of Kathryn Hudson, the social care tsar and organisations such as the British Association of Social Work.

However, he concluded: “In the new world, we must influence through alliances rather than through institutions or single organisations.”