Behan insists that CSCI merger is not a takeover

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.”