Regulator says personalisation will flourish with flexibility

The new care services watchdog has said it wants to develop a regulatory system that is flexible enough to allow personalised services to flourish.

The Care Quality Commission began work on 1 April as the joint regulator for all adult social care and health services in England.

It said its approach will be based on “getting the balance right” between ensuring good quality services and not letting regulation get in the way of people who want to organise their own support.

But the CQC said it will inspect organisations that help disabled people manage their individual budgets.

A CQC spokeswoman said: “They need to know they can rely on the people who are advising and supporting them. So we will be checking that sufficient advice and advocacy is available to those who need it.”

The commission said the existing social care regulatory framework was developed before personalisation became mainstream policy. In June, it will be consulting on a new registration process which it says will provide a “more adaptable framework”.

The CQC spokeswoman said: “New sorts of services are growing in response to personalisation.

“The challenge for regulation is to make sure we keep our responses sufficiently flexible to enable these services to develop while at the same time being sufficiently rigorous to challenge poor and unsafe practice, wherever we find it.”

She said the commission would work with charities, including user- and carer-led organisations, to make sure it set up the right regulatory framework.

>From 2010, she said, the CQC would be able to tailor guidance to specific sectors, to take account of different services, and “allow a more ‘personalised’ approach to flourish”. 

April