The Care Standards Act 2000 (Establishments and Agencies) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2006

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations, which apply to establishments and agencies in England only, amend certain regulations made under the Care Standards Act 2000 in respect of care homes, nurses agencies, domiciliary care agencies and adult placement schemes.

Regulation 2 of these Regulations amends the Care Homes Regulations 2001 as follows.

• Regulation 2(1) (interpretation) is amended in order to include a definition of “working day”.

• Paragraph (1) of regulation 5 (service user’s guide) is amended to require greater detail to be included in a service user’s guide relating to the standard package of services provided in the care home, the terms and conditions which apply to key services and fee levels and payment arrangements. The guide is also required to state whether the terms and conditions (including fees) would be different in circumstances where a service user’s care is funded, in whole or in part, by someone other than the service user.

• Paragraph (2A) of regulation 5 is amended so that a person can request an extract of the information contained in the service user’s guide instead of a copy of the whole guide. In addition, it is amended to provide that the copy, or the extract, must be provided within 5 working days of any request being received by the care home.

• Regulation 5A, which deals with information about fees to be given to service users, is amended so as to apply to all care homes, and not just to those where nursing is provided. It is further amended to require any notice of increase of fees to be accompanied by a statement of the reasons for such an increase and to qualify the requirement that any increase in fees must be notified at least one month in advance, to reflect the fact that such notice may not always be practicable.

• A new regulation 5B is inserted and contains transitory provisions relating to the provision of information relating to fees to existing service users who are defined as those accommodated in a care home immediately prior to 1st September 2006 (the date on which the new fees requirements come into force).

• Regulation 24 (review of quality of care), is substituted with a new provision requiring a system to be put in place by the registered provider for evaluating the quality of services provided at the care home, and for reports based on this system to be given to the Commission on request. Consequential amendments are made to regulation 35 which deals with the application of regulation 24 to children.

• A new regulation 24A provides that, if the Commission so requests, the registered person in respect of a care home must produce an improvement plan detailing how he intends to improve the services provided in the home. In addition, a written copy of that plan must be provided to the Commission and must be made available to service users and their representatives and to the parents and placing authorities of children accommodated in a care home.

• Regulations 36 and 43 (offences) are amended in order to insert a reference to the new regulation 5B.

Regulations 3, 4, and 5 amend the Nurses Agencies Regulations 2002, the Domiciliary Care Agencies Regulations 2002 and Adult Placement Schemes (England) Regulations 2004 respectively in order to substitute provisions dealing with the review of quality of service provision with new regulations dealing with the assessment of quality of services in the same terms as regulation 24 of the Care Homes Regulations set out above. In addition, provision is made in each of these sets of Regulations for an improvement plan in the same terms as for the Care Homes Regulations described above.

Two Regulatory Impact Assessments have been prepared for these Regulations – one relating to the provision of information about prices/fees and the other relating to evaluating the quality of services. Copies of both assessments have been placed in the library of each House of Parliament. Copies can also be obtained from the Department of Health’s website. In addition, copies can be obtained from Room 129, Wellington House, 133-135 Waterloo Road, London SE1 8UG.