More checks for struggling services

More checks for struggling services Poor care providers could be
inspected several times a year and good performers once every three
years under proposals unveiled last week by the Commission for
Social Care Inspection.

The reform, which would require changes to regulations, forms the
centrepiece of Inspecting for Better Lives – Delivering
Change, the commission’s manifesto for the future of
inspection, which builds on proposals outlined last year.

Author Anni Hartley-Walder, CSCI’s head of methodology, said the
reforms would focus the regulator’s resources on where they would
do most good.

Current regulations stipulate that providers within the same
category of service should be inspected equally often – twice a
year in the case of care homes.

Hartley-Walder said “random” inspections of particular elements of
services would prevent good providers becoming complacent.

The government is reviewing the national minimum standards and the
regulations governing social care inspection, and is expected to
report this autumn.