Adult Social Care Information (Enforcement) Regulations 2022

Debate between Lord Davies of Gower and Baroness Wheeler

Thursday 3rd November 2022 Grand Committee

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

I am grateful to the noble Baronesses for their contributions this afternoon.

The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, and I were on the Public Services Committee during Covid, and one thing we were very conscious about was data collection. That was highlighted on that committee, so I am very aware of the points that were raised in that respect.

On the purpose of data collection and support, as I am sure the noble Baroness appreciates, the availability of good quality and timely data from ICS providers is essential to improve the service for all users, support efficient commissioning and systems assurance and manage national, regional and local risks. The data is needed to continue to support Covid recovery, monitor vaccination levels, understand capacity and risk in the care system more generally, understand the impact of winter pressures, determine when and how to target support to providers and, ultimately, help facilitate the care of individuals across the care system long term.

The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, asked about transparency. Our programme of work to improve data in adult social care includes updating the adult social care outcomes framework to ensure that it better captures the outcomes that matter most to people and reflects the Care Act 2014 and reform. It is used locally and nationally to set priorities for care and support, measure progress and strengthen transparency and accountability. We are developing an ISC data framework, which will start to set out what data gaps we have, our approach to addressing them, the purpose of those collections and the standards to which they are collected.

The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, asked about guarantees for future Secretaries of State. I cannot stand here and speak for what a future Secretary of State will do but, for now, I can assure her that the data will be subject to the UK GDPR.

The noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, asked about the burden on small businesses. We hope to see full compliance so that financial penalties are not required. Our priority is to support providers to share their data wherever possible. The data required will be proportionate and we do not anticipate it being onerous. Financial penalties will normally be a last resort, where a provider continues to be or is persistently in breach of its data obligations despite multiple offers of support from our delivery partners.

The noble Baroness also wanted some assurance on data collection. As I said, our aim is to work closely with stakeholders to identify and agree key data needs, as well as look at opportunities to streamline current data collections from ASC providers, so that data can be captured once and shared safely with all those who need it.

Another point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Wheeler, was on fines. As I said, we hope to see full compliance so that financial penalties are not required. Our priority is to support providers to share their data wherever possible. The data required will be proportionate and we do not anticipate it being too onerous, as I said earlier.

I think that covers most of the points that were raised.

[Baroness Wheeler (Lab)]

I also asked about the cost of the appeal process and the five-year review.

[Lord Davies of Gower (Con)]

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, the appeal process is through the courts. If it would be helpful, I can guide the noble Baroness through the level of fines. They will be the same as a provider’s CQC registration fee, which is calculated based on the type and size of the provider. These are examples of fines: where the care home provider has fewer than four beds, the penalty will be £313; where the care home provider has 16 to 20 beds, the penalty will be £2,388; and where the care home provider has more than 90 beds, the penalty will be from £15,710. Here are further examples: where the domiciliary care provider has fewer than 20 users, the penalty will be up to £1,597; where the domiciliary care provider has 26 to 50 users, the penalty will be from £1,651 to £2,954; and, lastly, where the domiciliary care provider has 76 to 100 users, the penalty will be from £4,366 to £5,670.

As I mentioned in my opening remarks, details about the process of appeal are standard and set out in the relevant rules for the First-tier Tribunal, rather than in these regulations. The standard deadline for making an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal is 28 days after the decision—in this case, 28 days after the final notice.

In conclusion, we want to build a better picture of adult social care services across England so that, at the local, regional and national levels, people in the sector have the information they need to provide high-quality care and support to people who need it. These draft regulations will ensure that we continue to get vital information from all registered adult social care providers and that, where providers do not make a good-faith effort to provide the data or do not otherwise have a reasonable excuse for not doing so, they are held to account. I commend these draft regulations to the Committee.