Future of the Home Care Workforce Commission

(asked on 2nd December 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the finding of the Burstow Commission on the future of the home care workforce that home care requires better oversight.


Answered by
Earl Howe Portrait
Earl Howe
Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
This question was answered on 15th December 2014

The Department has not conducted a formal assessment of the findings of the Commission. However, the Government is taking a variety of actions to drive up the quality of home care services and improve the working conditions of staff.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has introduced a new system of inspection of social care providers. The new inspections are structured around five key questions that matter most to people – are services safe, caring, effective, well-led and responsive to people’s needs?

From 1 April 2015, providers will be under a legal duty to meet a new set of registration requirements that include new fundamental standards. The CQC has a range of enforcement powers it can employ to ensure providers comply with these standards, including the ability to prosecute both providers and directors that are responsible for unacceptable standards of care. We are also introducing a “fit and proper person” test for directors. Where a director is deemed by the CQC to be unfit for the role, it will be able to insist upon his/her removal.

The Department worked with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, the Local Government Association and the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham to develop a set of commissioning standards for local authorities. The standards were launched successfully at the National Children’s and Adults’ Services conference in October 2014 and will now be piloted by a number of local authorities.

Local authorities will be encouraged to use them to support improvement in their commissioning practices, including those which impact on the social care workforce, such as provider compliance with National Minimum Wage requirements and fair employee contracting terms.

The Government is also naming and shaming employers that break National Minimum Wage laws and helping staff to recover the pay owed to them. We expect to have employers in the care sector soon.

Reticulating Splines