Coalition upset by Conservative call

The Coalition for Quality in Care has said it
is “outraged” by Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith’s calling
for the scrapping of the care standards regulations.

Kina Avebury, chairperson of the group, which
represents older people and their care providers and has around 60
members including the Centre for Policy on Ageing, Age Concern
England and Action on Elder Abuse, said the suggestion that the
regulations be scrapped has the potential to “pull down the whole
edifice” of care standards and the work that has gone into
them.

Duncan Smith tabled four early day motions
calling for the annulment of the National Care Standards Commission
registration regulations, the fees and frequency of inspections
regulations, the care home regulations and the private and
voluntary health care regulations. The tabling of such an early day
motion is a device to draw attention to an issue and to elicit
support.

Avebury said that good providers had no
problem in raising standards and were likely to “feel sick” if
there was a relaxation in the requirements.

A spokesperson for Liam Fox, shadow secretary
for health and one of the signatories of the motion, said the move
was to draw attention to the way the government had “chronically
mismanaged” the care home sector. He added that the standards were
“vague and overbearing” and caused uncertainty in the sector.

The issue is to be debated within the next
fortnight.