§ Mr. NormanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 28 April 2003,Official Report, columns 279–80W, on NHS inspection staff, what the total pay costs incurred by the (a) Commission for Health Improvement, (b) National Institute for Clinical Excellence, (c) National Care Standards Commission and (d) Social Services Inspectorate were in each year since 1997. [113388]
§ Mr. HuttonThe Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) came into being on 1 November 1999 and began to conduct a rolling programme of clinical governance reviews in 2001. An important aspect of this work is to complete a Clinical Governance Review of 500 national health service organisations by 2004. The total cost incurred in inspection work in each year since 1999 is shown in the table.
Annual staffing costs (£) Staff employed Staff engaged in inspection work Total pay costs of inspections 1999–00 673,000 17 n/a n/a 2000–01 1,320,000 32 n/a n/a 2001–02 1,944,000 40 n/a n/a 2002–03 2,706,000 59 n/a n/a The increase in the staffing costs for NICE is due to an increase in the number of staff employed at NICE.
953WThe National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) became fully operational on 1 April 2002. The NCSC is responsible for registration and inspection of health and social care services in England. The total cost incurred in inspection work in the year 2002 is shown in the table.
2002–03 Annual staffing cost (£) 69,118,000 Staff employed (number) 2,285 Staff engaged in inspection work (number) 1,350 Total pay costs of inspections (£ million) 49 The annual staffing cost is due to the number of staff employed.
The Social Services Inspectorate (SSI) is a division of the Department of Health. The structure and functions of both the Department and the SSI have changed over the period 1998–99 and 2002–03. The SSI inspects councils with social services responsibilities in England, and from this and other evidence, it assesses and reports on councils' performance, and where necessary makes recommendations for improvement.
The total cost incurred in inspection work in each year since 1998 is shown in the table.
Annual staffing costs (£) Staff employed Staff engaged in inspection work Total pay costs of inspections (£) 1997–98 5,000,000 156 92 2,981,551 1998–99 5,000,000 156 91 2,975,727 1999–2000 6,400,000 156 91 3,588,457 2000–01 7,800,000 198 108 4,443,699 2001–02 8,800,000 229 127 4,621,494 2002–03 9,200,000 236 120 n/a There are four reasons why costs have increased in this period:
The increase in numbers of social services authorities took time to work its way through to additional inspection workModernising Social Services led to an annual review of council performanceThere has been a move towards working alongside councils to improve their performanceJoint Reviews with the Audit Commission have expanded, and these figures include the SSI costs of Joint ReviewsThere was an increase in the number of SSI regions from four to eight (coterminous with NHS regions) to nine (coterminous with Government Regional Offices).