Information updates have started with Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW) and Welsh Government.
One of the headline changes is that managers no longer need to be registered with CSSIW although they will still need to be registered with Social Care Wales (SCW). The managers will now not be responsible for notifying CSSIW about changes in service and all the many other notifications that they have had responsibility for in the past. This duty will now fall on the Responsible Individual (RI). It will be the RIs responsibility to appoint the manager and to report to the provider. The RI will be expected to spend at least one full day a month at the home, although this may be in bite sized pieces. He needs to speak to service users and staff to identify any issues. In essence, he will have to satisfy himself that all the paperwork and notifications are going ahead as they have in the past without being hands on himself.
Some managers have found this change disturbing as their pay reflects their responsibilities. They are mindful that they may be financially disadvantaged by this new system. Whether there can be sufficient RIs recruited to take on these responsibilities is also open to question.
New provision relating to premises will be onerous including showers in all en-suites. Any home that finds itself without any residents at any time will need to comply fully as if they were a new registration. Any extensions will have to comply with the new regime although they are unable at the moment to understand how a home wishing to provide extra bedrooms will be treated in respect of communal space. Existing provisions will have to be reregistered although CSSIW hope to have a streamlined online scheme in place with only problem providers and provision being subjected to personal interviews.
Groups of homes will be registered in a completely new manner. No longer will each provision, domiciliary care or residential, stand alone but the holding company will be registered and then each provision in each area being ‘noted’ or approved. Each provision may be subject to scrutiny, improvement notices and even closure without necessarily closing all the provisions in the group, however, it may be that the problem is the system in the organisation and the entire group may be affected.
‘Why is this happening at all?’ has been asked. The answer lies in the abortive police enquiry known as the Jasmine Enquiry into failure of care in a group of homes in south-east Wales, ten or so years ago. The provider at that time, it was alleged, caused systemic neglect in numerous of the homes there and yet it had not proved possible to prosecute. These new proposals were designed to never allow this to happen again.
This brief overview is intended to inform and encourage responses to Welsh Government on the issues. If you have an interest in social care in any capacity then please respond.
The draft regulation can be found at: https://consultations.gov.wales/sites/default/files/consultation_doc_files/170502regulations1en.pdf
The consultation link can be found at: https://consultations.gov.wales/consultations/phase-2-implementation-regulation-andinspection-social-care-wales-act-2016
