CSCI Sets Out Ambitious Plans For Next Two Years

The Commission for Social Care Inspection today set out its ambitious plans for the two years from April 2007 to March 2009. After then an expected merger with the Healthcare Commission and Mental Health Act Commission will create a new health and adult social care regulator.
{mosimage}CSCI Chair Dame Denise Platt said: “At its best social care transforms lives. Disabled people can be supported to hold down jobs; older people can receive services – in their own homes or a growing range of residential settings – which maintain their health, well-being and overall quality of life; parents suffering from substance misuse or mental ill-health can be helped so their problems do not impact adversely on their children; and those who care for others can obtain invaluable respite and support.

“Many social care services deliver these outcomes but there are still areas of poor performance and sub standard services. Inspection and assessment, delivered well and economically, are vital components of the Government’s reform programme to secure public services which are of high quality and responsive to what people want.

“Rising expectations will quickly make even today’s good services seem inadequate, so the challenge is one of continuous improvement – with the regulator, CSCI, informing the public and assessing, encouraging and sometimes formally holding to account those who hold the keys to higher quality services, primarily those who run and provide them and those who commission them.”

CSCI Chief Inspector Paul Snell said: “We have already made significant changes to the way we inspect local councils and regulate and inspect individual care services. But we are ambitious for greater improvement – both in the way we ourselves carry out our work, and the improvement we see in local councils and care services throughout England.

“We face many crucial developments over the next two years, not least the introduction of a new way of assessing the performance of councils and their local partners – Comprehensive Area Assessments; bringing in quality ratings for care services to empower consumers; and the need to deliver our plans more efficiently within the context of even tighter resource constraints.

“This new Corporate Plan sets out clearly an ambitious set of priorities and objectives for the Commission – they will be challenging to deliver, but, as the Plan says, we are determined to drive forward to deliver this agenda.”

CSCI’s new Corporate Plan for 2007-09 – “Driving Forward” – emphasises its commitment to:

• keep challenging local councils to improve the way they support all those who may need social care, including those for whom they organise care services;
• continue its radical agenda to transform the way services are regulated and inspected;
• the launch of quality ratings for all providers in 2008;
• put a greater emphasis on the need to safeguard and promote people’s human rights and diversity.

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