§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health which national minimum standards care homes will have to be fully compliant with from 1 April 2002. [24183]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 19 December 2001]National minimum standards that will not apply to care homes from 1 April 2002 are those relating to training and environmental requirements. Specifically, existing care homes will have until 2005 to comply with the standards requiring a minimum of 50 per cent. of care staff to be qualified at NVQ level 2 or equivalent. Existing care homes will have until 2007 to comply with the standards relating to room size, shared facilities and places in single rooms.
However, non-compliance with national minimum standards will not lead to the National Care Standards Commission automatically pursuing enforcement action or deregistration. Instead it will seek to agree actions to be taken by homes to ensure compliance with standards within a reasonable time frame—unless vulnerable service users are at serious risk as a result of non-compliance. The national minimum standards are intended to be a means of assisting care homes to improve the quality of their services as well as a vehicle to protect vulnerable people
Not all of the standards relate to all care homes as some are aimed at specialist provision only.