Will care regulation stand firm amidst growing discontent?

Care providers will have woken up to the news last week that the Care Quality Commission has implemented a new fees system that will be paid ‘to cover the costs of regulation’ said to reflect Government guidance on the issue and to be phased into the care home sector over several years.

The announcement is not likely to halt the falling popularity of the regulator within the sector unless a clearer sense of direction becomes clear, which is unlikely considering that the CQC’s consultation process into the reform of its regulation is not due to close for another year.

Two leading care associations, the National Care Association and the English Community Care Association, were among those to immediately attack the fees announcement, furthering a decline in relations that has visibly accelerated over the last six months since the CQC scrapped the star rating system and demanded all care providers re-register in October 2010.

The National Care Association’s Chairman, Nadra Ahmed, criticised the three days’ notice provided, especially considering that care providers are facing public sector cuts at this time, asking ‘How can any care provider properly plan their business strategy…?’ an important question at a time when the care industry is aiming to attract and encourage new business ventures to meet the growing needs of an ageing population.

The English Community Care Association’s Chief Executive, Martin Green, was equally unimpressed and looked to attack the regulator’s ‘poor performance’ as a fundamental reason as to why the fee rises cannot be justified. The ECCA even published an accompanying paper with its response as a means of informing providers, paradoxically, what standards they should expect from their care regulator.

All adds to the impression that morale in the sector over regulatory issues seems to be heading towards a low-point that will no doubt add to the sombre picture being painted by those opposed to local authority cuts and service closures. Not to mention the dilemma at the heart of Coalition Government over the direction of the NHS, on which Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has just addressed the House of Commons seeking to calm a wave of anxiety that has clearly begun to move against the health reforms over recent weeks, including from the majority of Liberal Democrats in the Coalition as well as from the opposition ranks.

Will the CQC avoid any knock-on effects of this healthcare related discontent or will it look, as the Health Secretary has today, for ways to alleviate some of these fears or even give ground on the consultation process that has been set out.