Government is to drop the planned excellence award for social care providers
Social care providers’ excellence award to be ditched
The government is to drop the planned excellence award for social care providers after it was universally rejected by the sector.
Care Quality Commission chair Jo Williams said today she saw no prospect of the scheme going ahead after it had receievd a “universal thumbs down” by providers’ bodies and organisations such as the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services in a CQC consultation that closed last month.
She told the National Care Association conference today: “It’s clear yourselves and others have said it’s not going to work and it doesn’t add value. We put all the results of our consultation to the Department of Health and while we’ve not had a formal response I saw the minister [Paul Burstow] and he understands it’s a universal thumbs down so I can’t see it happening. The climate isn’t there because everyone is saying it won’t deliver the goods.”
Opposition to the scheme centres on the following concerns:
● That applications for the award would be voluntary, meaning there was no marker of quality to distinguish those that did not apply.
● There were no gradations of quality for judging providers below “excellent”.
● The scheme would be outsourced to multiple providers by CQC, resulting in inconsistency.
● Providers would have to pay to apply.
The government has not formally announced the demise of the scheme but Community Care has requested a comment from the Department of Health in response to Williams’ comments.
