Local authority inspection units have been badly hit by the budget crisis, says Heather Wing, chairperson of the National Association of Inspection and Registration Officers. 'Some local authorities have been making cuts in their number of inspectors to make savings because of budget cuts,' she says.

Sheffield was slated in January this year by an SSI and Audit Commission joint review for failing to visit three-quarters of its residential care homes last year, although it is required to visit them twice a year.

In Oxfordshire, where massive cuts have forced managers to wield the axe, the inspection unit has lost 10 per cent of its staff in the past year. Statutory duties are being maintained, but discretionary work has suffered.

Sefton was criticised for not carrying out statutory inspections of its children's services. Inspections were more than halved between 1995 and 1996 and those carried out found that eight of the council's homes failed to meet health and safety requirements. The inspection crisis led junior health minister Paul Boateng to call for the independent sector to foot more of the bill for home inspections, where local authorities pick up 60 per cent of the bill. Nursing home registration fees are set to increase by 40 per cent and residential care fees by 13 per cent from May.