The Government has today (Thursday 3 March) published its findings from The Cutting Red Tape Reviews carried out across three sectors, including adult social care.
Launched in July 2015 by the Government to get rid of unnecessary bureaucracy, the adult social care review set out to reduce duplication and overlap of inspections, visits, paperwork and data requests that is created by commissioning, contract management and regulatory work.
Looking at the activities of organisations including CQC, local authorities and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), the adult social care sector review has highlighted a range of issues that organisations face when dealing with regulation and its enforcement.
The Government will now lead on a programme of work to help make sure it is clearly understood which public bodies do what and why in their interactions with care homes and address those areas where burdens have been reported.
Commenting on the review, our Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Andrea Sutcliffe, said:
“The responsibility for delivering safe, effective, person-centred and high quality care clearly rests with providers, supported by their commissioners and funders. Regulators must not get in the way of that – we have to ensure that we add value by setting clear expectations, providing transparent information about our judgments, encouraging improvement and tackling poor care when we find it.
“I am glad that the review recognises this valuable role and the progress we have made at CQC since the introduction of our new inspection approach in October 2014. This approach is focused on what matters to people using services so if care home providers are truly getting it right for their residents, they will be getting it right for us too.
“I welcome the challenge to reduce the burden of duplication – a concern the consultation on our 2016 to 2021 strategy has already recognised. We have set out proposals to streamline the way we collect and share information about services and our desire to agree a shared view of quality. We are sure life will be so much easier for the public and providers if everyone, including providers and commissioners, looked at quality in the same way."
Find out more
Read more about the findings from The Cutting Red Tape Review in the adult social care sector together with the Government’s response.