Last Updated on March 4, 2016

The Government has published the findings of its Cutting Red Tape review on the progress of regulatory reform in adult social care. It focuses on residential and nursing care.

The review is one of a series that examine whether legislation can be simplified or improved to reduce unnecessary burdens on business. As part of the review, the Government consulted with providers, users, regulators and commissioners about their experiences. The consultation considered how current regulation and its implementation is working and where the Government could support improvements and make life easier.

In the Ministerial Foreword to the review, Anna Soubry, Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise said that respondents to the consultation, ‘told us that often there is still a level of duplicated activity between regulators and those commissioning services. You have told us that this extra process and paperwork leaves less time for dedicated staff to deliver care as well as adding to the financial burdens of a hard pressed sector. That is why we are determined to see any wasteful duplication of process and unnecessary paperwork removed, giving everyone more time to do their job and care for people.’

The Government intends to formulate a plan of action to tackle the issues and develop a more proportionate and coordinated approach to regulating and commissioning social care, to benefit all parties and drive up quality.

Commenting on the review, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at the Care Quality Commission, 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.’

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England said, ‘An effective regulatory and monitoring system is vital and recognises and rewards good care, but at the heart of this must be a balance that allows staff to do their jobs and build up caring and respectful relationships with residents. Duplicate information requests, and numerous visits from agencies who don’t share their information, adds to the workload. Many local authorities and clinical commissioning groups, who all purchase care from the same homes, must align their contracts and monitoring activity.’

VODG Chief Executive, Professor Rhidian Hughes commented, ‘This welcomed review will help drive resources to further improve frontline services. We are pleased Government has identified inefficient processes and duplications that get in the way of frontline delivery. By removing unnecessary bureaucracy, providers will be able to focus more of their efforts on quality improvement.’

Rhidian added, ‘Whilst the focus of this review is on care homes, we also want the lessons to be applied across the system to other areas of regulated provision. Steps need to be taken to deliver lean and business-like services. The benefits of information technology, for example, must be harnessed more effectively.’

Cutting Red Tape Review of adult social care - residential and nursing home sector can be found here. The Government’s response can be found here.