Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I hope that you, your staff and the people you care for had a peaceful Christmas and that you are able to look to the New Year with confidence.

The first few weeks of January are usually a time for catching up here in the office, and to reflect on our plans for the coming year. As many of you know by now we successfully tendered to Skills for Care for a contract to assist members to complete the National Minimum Data Set (Social Care) The data that is collected is stored confidentially and it is an invaluable source of information for lobbying purposes. I know that many of you have already completed NMDS-SC but anyone that hasn't is welcome to contact us at the office and we will be pleased to assist.

There are advantages to you in completing the NMDS-SC:

1. With your consent CSCI can access the data held for your establishment and that saves you from having to complete the staffing section of the AQAA
2. Accessing some of the TSI funding is dependent on having completed NMDS-SC

I was very disappointed last week to see articles in The Times about care homes. In one of the articles the Minister had been interviewed and he was quoted as saying that he intended to raise standards in care homes but the sector could not expect any "new money"

The following is the letter that we submitted to The Times but it was not published:


Dear Sir,

Your leader and articles yesterday ('Who Cares?')
addresses a crucial problem we raised at our National Care Association annual conference late last year. Time and time again our conference speakers pointed out that Government and care homes regulators must take some of the responsibility in those instances where the provision of care fails.In your articles today the Minister is saying that he will raise standards of care but he cannot offer more money to fund the raised standards. Almost 70 percent of people in receipt of care in care homes are funded by the State. So if there is to be no more money but the standards are to be raised how is that to be paid for within the financial climate businesses are operating at the current time? This is not a new question. For many years the fee increases awarded by local authorities have so often failed to keep up with inflation and in some instances last year there was no increase at all and I know that many of our members fear the same this year. This is a shortfall borne by independent care home owners. Nationally the majority of providers are rated excellent or good by the regulator. There must also be a question around the competence of the regulator who receives millions of pounds a year in fees from care providers to monitor their responsibility to the frail and vulnerable. It is of course extremely disappointing for the responsible providers we represent to hear reports of poor provision when they work so hard within tight financial constraints to provide the best possible care for the frail and vulnerable. We would urge the Government, the Regulator and Commissioners to make sure that they are fulfilling their side of the contract to the old and frail as well as the people they so freely criticise. Until this mismatch is remedied the viability of the Independent Care Sector is under threat.

Nadra Ahmed
Chairman