Burstow scraps councils’ annual CQC assessments…

4th November 2010

Care Services minister Paul Burstow has announced that from next year, councils will no longer be assessed annually on their adult social care performance by the Care Quality Commission.   The announcement came at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Manchester this week .

This reform will take effect immediately, meaning councils will not have to collate or submit data against the Care Quality Commision’s outcomes framework for 2010-11.  Instead, the annual assessment will be replaced by a localised assessment system, which is to be specified in the next few months.

Speaking about the new system, Burstow stated; ”It’s a more proportionate and constructive system built around local accountability, driven by sector-led, mutual support, not the unhelpful stigma of priority for improvement status.”  He added that the move was aimed at stripping out unnecessary bureaucracy and removing regulatory pressures which created a burden in every day work.