CQC announce nine per cent increase in regulatory fees

The regulatory board for social care in England, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has announced a nine per cent annual increase in fees for providers for 2015/16.

The increase will apply to all care services including NHS trusts, care homes and community social care services, but dentists will not experience the same increase in fees because the cost of their regulation has been recovered fully already.

Guidance to the fees will be published next month, accompanied by a calculator that will help providers work out their exact fee and an option to pay in instalments will be introduced in the summer.

David Behan, chief executive of the CQC said: "Our commitment is to make sure that people receive safe, high-quality and compassionate care and we are confident our new way of registering, inspecting and monitoring services allows us to do this.

"We understand that the increase in fees is happening at a difficult economic time for many providers but we hope that they, and importantly those who use their services, are seeing the benefits of our inspections, which allow us to identify where improvements are needed and to celebrate what services are doing well.

"We are determined to deliver value for money by being an efficient and effective organisation."

Together with a grant-in-aid from the Government, the fees provide funding for the CQC to register, inspect and monitor health and adult social care providers throughout England who are required to pay fees under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

The revised fees will be introduced on 1 April following a public consultation last year and approval from the Secretary of State for Health.