§ Mr. PickthallTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to mitigate the financial penalties on Carers Groups caused by the abolition of local inspection units. [57608]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 23 May 2002]: I believe this question concerns the impact on domiciliary care providers of the new regulatory arrangements under the Care Standards Act which require them to register with the National Care Standards Commission from 1 April 2002, and pay a registration fee.
Our policy is to set fees to recover the full cost of regulating and inspecting service providers. We decided, however, that full cost recovery should be phased in over five years, in order to allow providers to adjust to the new fee regime and to avoid destabilising the care sector.
We consulted extensively on the fee structure before finalising it. The fee levels for each service have been determined according to the total costs for that service and in all cases have been set at a level lower than full cost recovery for that service. Thus in the first year of regulation by the Commission domiciliary care providers will only pay 24 per cent. of the actual cost of registration and inspection. In addition, we have agreed to make a concession to small agencies and set the annual fee at 50 per cent. of the level for other agencies. A small agency is defined in the regulations as one where no more than two members of staff, including registered persons but excluding someone employed solely as a receptionist, are employed at any one time.