Commission’s new checks under way

Service providers face a new inspection regime from this month,
with more self-assessment and unannounced inspections, simplified
registration procedures and a scoring system based on
outcomes.

It is the first stage in the Commission for Social Care
Inspection’s three-year drive to modernise the regulatory system,
set out in Inspecting For Better Lives.

Although 70 per cent of consultation respondents backed the CSCI’s
proposals, these plans have now been called into question by the
government’s decision to transfer the CSCI’s children’s function to
Ofsted and merge its adult function with the Healthcare Commission
by 2008.

The CSCI will now use provider self-assessments, which will include
users’ views, to decide how often to inspect a service.

Registration will be streamlined so that home care agencies no
longer have to register separately in different places, while
services will no longer be scored on the basis of meeting national
minimum standards.

Children’s services will be rated against the five outcomes in the
Children Act 2004 and adult providers against the outcome
statements in the national minimum standards.