As this issue of Caring Times goes to press, providers of adult social care services should be receiving through the post the latest information about registering with the Care Quality Commission.
The process of applying for registration will begin shortly. Each provider is to be allocated a four-week period in which to submit their application, and this ‘window’ will be somewhere between 1 April and 30 September. All providers must be registered by 1 October.
Providers will be contacted nearer the time with the dates for their application window.
Under the new registration system, which we are introducing across the whole health and adult social care sector, people can expect providers to meet essential standards of quality that protect their safety and respect their dignity and rights wherever care is provided – in someone’s home, in a community setting, or in a hospital.
Earlier this year we produced our guidance about compliance with the new standards, which for social care services replace the current National Minimum Standards. The guidance is focused on outcomes for people that apply across all care services, but it also contains specific outcomes for particular service types, including residential care and domiciliary care services.
As we approach the registration application period, providers should be using this guidance now to check that their services are meeting the essential standards.
You may wonder why adult social care providers are being required to register anew. It is because the Health and Social Care Act 2008 supersedes the Care Standards Act 2000 and introduces a single registration system, a single set of essential standards, and strengthened enforcement powers which apply to both health and adult social care.
Registering the provider, not the facility
An important change for social care providers is that they won’t be separately registered for each of their premises. Instead they will make one application for each of the regulated activities that they provide across all of their locations.
For example, an organisation that owns more than one care home will have to apply to register each of the regulated activities that it provides, such as accommodation for people requiring nursing or personal care, and then will specify the different homes at which it carries out those activities. It will need to declare that it complies with all the essential standards of quality and safety at each location.
No ‘joining fees’
Existing providers already registered under the Care Standards Act 2000 will not be required to pay a ‘joining’ fee for being brought into the new system. All providers will continue to pay an annual registration fee – however, we have stated that the current fee levels will remain unchanged for the period up to 31 March 2011 (although we will still carry out a technical consultation on this). We plan to introduce a long-term approach to fees for all care providers from April 2011, and this will be the subject of further consultation later this year.
We want to make this whole process as smooth as possible. As well as through mailings, updates will also be available in our monthly email bulletin, which you can sign up to from our website: www.cqc.org.uk/newsandevents/newsletter.cfm
More information on how to apply for registration, and the guidance about compliance, can be found on the website at: http://www.cqc.org.uk/guidanceforprofessionals/registration/newregistrationsystem.cfm
If you have any queries, please contact our national contact centre on 03000 616161 or enquiries@cqc.org.uk.
Providers who wish to get more involved with CQC’s work can join our online ‘provider reference group’, which tests and develops the processes for our new assessment systems before they are published. Sign up by emailing cqc@nunwood.com
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