PART 1Care and support
Market oversight
53Specifying criteria for application of market oversight regime
1
Regulations must specify criteria for determining whether (subject to regulations under subsection (4)) section 55 (financial sustainability assessment) applies to a registered care provider who is registered in respect of the carrying on of a regulated activity relating to the provision of social care for adults.
2
In specifying the criteria, the Secretary of State must have regard to the following in particular—
a
the amount of social care provided by a registered care provider,
b
the geographical concentration of a registered care provider’s business,
c
the extent to which a registered care provider specialises in the provision of particular types of care.
3
The Secretary of State must—
a
at such times as the Secretary of State considers appropriate, review the criteria for the time being specified in the regulations, and
b
publish information about how the matters mentioned in subsection (2), and any other matters to which the Secretary of State has regard in specifying the criteria, are to be measured.
4
Regulations may provide that section 55 does not apply, or applies only to the extent specified, to a specified registered care provider or to a registered care provider of a specified description, regardless of whether that provider or a provider of that description would satisfy the criteria.
5
Regulations may provide that section 55 applies, or applies to the extent specified, to a specified registered care provider or to a registered care provider of a specified description, regardless of whether that provider or a provider of that description would satisfy the criteria.
6
The circumstances in which regulations may be made under subsection (4) include those in which the Secretary of State is satisfied that certain registered care providers are already subject to a regulatory regime comparable to that provided for by sections 55 and 56; and regulations made in such circumstances may, for example, make provision requiring specified persons to co-operate or to share information of a specified description.
7
“Social care” has the same meaning as in Part 1 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008.