Unison slams planned budget cuts

Unison has launched a scathing attack on the planned budget cuts to the combined regulator due to be formed from the merger of the Healthcare Commission and Commission for Social Care Inspection.

In its response to the government’s review of health and social care regulation, Unison warned the Department of Health had indicated the new regulator could face a 40 per cent cut on the budgets enjoyed by its predecessor bodies.

The two bodies, alongside the Mental Health Act Commission, will form a new combined regulator by 2009.

Unison’s head of local government Heather Wakefield said: “We fear that the scale of this budget cut will pose a major risk to the inspectorate’s ability to maintain standards and ultimately to the safety and well-being of vulnerable people.”

The union, which represents a number of staff at CSCI, said it feared the implementation of the merger was driven by cost rather than improving regulation, and called on the Department of Health to ensure adequate transitional and ongoing funding for the new regulator.

Consultation on the regulation review closed last week