CSCI Chair outlines social care challenges for councils

In an article on the eGov website, the Chair of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, Dame Denise Platt, describes the key challenges that councils face in providing social care. As the CSCI prepares to hand over its work to the new Quality Care Commission at the beginning of April, Dame Platt also talks about the contribution that the CSCI has made to social care reform over the last five years. She summarises the challenges that still remain to councils as:

• Making access to social care services fairer and more transparent


• Providing information and advice to everyone that needs care support


• Tailoring care and support to people’s individual needs


• Making personalised care a reality for people with complex and multiple needs


• Commissioning for whole communities.

Dame Platt comments that the next few years will be a crucial time for the development of social care policy in England, with important decisions to be made about the future shape of the care system and how it will be funded. It will be the role of the Quality Care Commission to assess how changes in policy and practice are benefiting social care service users and to determine whether plans to increase an individual’s choice and control over their own care become a reality. You can read Dame Platt’s speech in full on the eGov website.