Burstow signals end of CQC adult social care assessment

Care services minister Paul Burstow has announced that the Care Quality Commission will no longer conduct an annual performance assessment of councils’ commissioning of adult social care.

CQC’s new role will be defined over the coming months and it commented that it was ‘ working with the Department of Health, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association, and Local Government Improvement & Development to shape the new approach.’

The discontinuation of the annual performance assessment will take place with immediate affect. Councils will not be required to collate or submit data against the Our Health, Our Care, Our Say outcomes framework for the 2010-11 assessment year.

The results of the 2009-10 assessment will be published towards the end of this month.

Cynthia Bower, CQC’s chief executive, said: ‘The annual performance assessment played an important role in driving improvements in council commissioning of care. However, we recognise the need for change.

‘We welcome this move to further devolve responsibility for the monitoring and improvement of council performance, bringing it closer to local people. This supports the drive to have more local accountability of public services.’