Health Committee Deems Watchdog A Success

The Care Commission has welcomed a report by the Scottish Parliament’s Health Committee, which concludes that the regulatory body has been a success in delivering a “rigorous and comprehensive regulation regime” since its inception in 2002.

The report states that the Care Commission, following the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, has achieved a “comprehensive and independent regulatory regime which has provided increased protection for the elderly and other groups receiving care services.”

The Committee also states that the Care Commission has improved confidence in the provision of care services and recommended the Scottish Executive continue to develop the Care Commission as the primary agency for the regulation of care services for the elderly.

However, the report also detailed a number of recommendations for the Care Commission to improve its registration and regulatory activities including streamlining the registration process for multiple registrations, reducing unnecessary duplication of work with local authorities and to publicise more widely the outcome of complaint inquiries.

Jacquie Roberts, chief executive of the Care Commission, said: “We very much welcome this report from the Health Committee and we are delighted it has acknowledged the Care Commission’s role in improving regulation, providing increased protection for older people in care homes and giving users improved confidence in the provision of care services.

“The Care Commission’s remit is to regulate and inspect more than 15,000 services in Scotland against the Scottish Ministers’ National Care Standards and it is extremely heartening that the Committee has recognised the great strides we have taken since 2002.

“However, the Committee has also raised some valid points – many of which the Care Commission specifically highlighted in written submissions to the Committee.

“We have already suggested to the Committee that the wording of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act be amended to allow us to register a service providing a number of functions only once, therefore reducing the number of multiple registrations and making it easier for innovative services to develop.

“We have also set out in our 2006-07 Corporate plan to conclude Memorandums of Understanding with remaining local authorities and we are currently in discussions with COSLA about putting together a national framework for MOU’s.

“We are committed to reducing duplication of work wherever possible and sharing of information and we see MOU’s with local authorities as a vital tool in achieving this goal.

“In addition, for the past three years we have worked very successfully with Her Majesty’s Inspector of Education jointly to carry out inspections and publish reports and have integrated extremely well.

“We are also liaising closely with other bodies, like the Social Work Inspection Agency and NHS Quality Improvement for Scotland, to ensure that, where possible, we avoid any duplication of effort in regulation and inspection.

“We are also committed to, and are currently implementing, a system whereby services can provide details online in the form of annual returns. This system will reduce the administration time for services, avoid duplication of information and significantly improve the ability to share information between relevant bodies.

“Currently, around 27 per cent of the 15,000 services we regulate are using the online system and this number will increase significantly over the next year.

“The Committee also recommended the Care Commission publicise the outcome of complaint investigations more widely and this is something we agree with. We are actively looking for a solution which allows us to publicise the decisions without compromising the anonymity of the complainant.”