29/11/05 - Commission responds to Government wider review of regulation
The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has
responded to the Department of Health's consultation on its Wider review
of regulation in health and social care.
In the response, the Commission stresses that the review is important
because it is essential to be clear about the role and function of regulation
before any decisions are made about the type of organisation required
to deliver those functions.
The Commission also details its support for a regulatory system that
is designed to help deliver the Government's wider objectives for social
care and health. CSCI argues that regulation and inspection should support
and encourage those objectives, not drive them. Whatever system is in
place, the primary purpose of regulation and inspection should be to
safeguard and promote the rights and welfare of those who use care and
health services.
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response to the Wider Review of Regulation in Health and Social Care
Dame Denise Platt, Chair of the CSCI, said that having an overriding
statutory function to encourage improvement in services – as CSCI and
the Healthcare Commission currently do – is a powerful organising principle
for all activity.
Dame Denise continued: "CSCI is in a unique position to look across
the whole social care sector, regulating providers, challenging commissioners
and providing authoritative information for policy makers and the public.
We have also put consulting and involving people who use services at
the heart of everything we do. This, and our sector-wide perspective,
needs to be retained within a future regulatory system, and we are reminding
Government of this today.
"In our response we have pointed out that there are some critical differences
between the social care and health markets, making a single approach
to all regulatory and inspection activities problematic. However, we
have also recognised the real value of the increasing amount of joint
work we carry out with our partners in the Audit Commission, Healthcare
Commission, Ofsted and the Criminal Justice Inspectorates."
Source : CSCI
