Health Secretary transfers social care regulation in quango blitz

The regulation of social workers will be transferred from the General Social Care Council to the Health Professions Council as part of a shake-up of health quangos, the government has announced.

The review by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley also concluded that the Care Quality Commission should be retained as a quality inspectorate across health and social care.

The CQC will operate a joint licensing regime with Monitor, which will act as an economic regulator. The Commission will in addition become the host organisation for HealthWatch, a new consumer body that is intended to play a key role in the revamped NHS.

Also being retained is the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, which will have an expanded scope to include social care standards.

Under the proposals, the number of health-related arm’s length bodies (ALB) will be reduced from 18 to between eight and ten.

Key developments include:

• The abolition of the Health Protection Agency, which protects the health and wellbeing of the population. Its functions will be transferred to the Secretary of State as part of the new Public Health Service.
• The removal from the sector of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, which oversees professional regulators. It will be turned into a self-funding body with an extended role to set standards and quality assure voluntary registers.
• The retention of the NHS Litigation Authority, which handles negligence claims and works to improve risk management practices in the NHS. An industry review will be commissioned to see if there are potential opportunities for greater commercial involvement.

The Health Secretary said: “Over the years the ALB sector has grown to the point where overlap between organisations and duplication of effort have produced a needless bureaucratic web. By making sure that the right functions are being carried out at the appropriate level, we will free up significant savings to support frontline NHS services.”

Lansley also unveiled a consultation paper – Regulating Healthcare Providers – on plans to free up foundation trusts.

The proposals include making it easier for a foundation trust to merge or take over another trust, and giving more flexibility to foundation trusts to allow greater staff and patient involvement “with the possibility of some smaller organisations being led only by employees”.

The consultation paper also proposes removing the statutory private income cap to give trusts opportunities to expand the services they offer to patients “but ensuring that they remain focused on providing NHS services”. Statutory borrowing limits that are not imposed on voluntary or private providers will also be removed.

Lansley said: “In order to improve health outcomes and the service the NHS gives to patients, it must be free from the shackles of central control.”