Care Commission National Quality and Consistency Forum: Children S Services Regulation

Care Commission National Quality and Consistency Forum: Children’s Services Regulation

Friday 16 April 2010

Notes for CCPS members

Making the grade? Results from the first year of grading registered service 2008/09

The meeting was given a presentation highlighting some of the key results from this report. The report is available on the Care Commission website at . It was noted that the report came out a few months later than the Care Commission would have liked, and it is hoped that the report on the second year of grading will be available much quicker (late Autumn this year).

There was some discussion around the involvement of people who use services in the self-assessment/inspection process, and the Care Commission reiterated that judgements on engagement should be taken in the context of the service and client type.

Providers were asked for their views on the future of inspection, for example how they felt about likely further reductions in frequency of inspection and what might happen to grades if frequency of inspection is stretched? It was interesting to note that the majority of those present are now fully behind the grading system, and keen to have the opportunity to improve grades at (regular) future inspections.

Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland

A further presentation was given outlining progress in setting up the new regulatory body. A shadow team for the new body is to be recruited, but is unlikely to be in place before November. SCSWIS is due to come into operation in April 2011.

The new body will not have a statutory minimum inspection frequency, so further discussion ensued on the length of time that might pass between inspections. The Care Commission sought views on the idea that organisations might be corporately registered, with self-evaluation becoming the key measure of service quality (it was mooted that self-evaluations might sit on the Care Commission website alongside inspection reports).

I got the sense from the discussion that the level of funding that the new body might receive is of concern, and may be a driver behind some of the work to reduce inspection frequency.

Report on private fostering

A short presentation was given into a report published recently by the Care Commission into private fostering. The report finds that the majority of private fostering arrangements (where someone other than a close family member agrees to take care of a child for more than 28 days by private arrangement) are not notified to the local authority; an awareness-raising effort, along with more information on local authority websites, is felt to be needed. The report is available on the Care Commission website at

Disclosure

A question was raised as to whether or not it is acceptable for services, having carried out a risk assessment, to provisionally employ a member of staff in a supervised capacity before a Disclosure certificate has been returned. The CC indicated that this is legally a matter for employers to consider, and it was noted that CCOs can be inconsistent in their advice on this.