NATIONAL CARE STANDARDS COMMITTEE MEETING
Conference Room 3, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, Monday 28 April 2003
Note of the Meeting
Present: Adam Rennie (Chair), Janie Allan, Colin Anderson, Pek Yeong Berry, Lorraine Briggs, Doreen Campbell, Margaret Davidson, Sean Doohan, Sally Evans, Linda Gregson, Robert Houtman, Jaqueline Hughes, Violet Jardine, Gordon Masterton, Mary McCann, Jacquie Roberts, David Souter, Marjory Barquist (Secretary)
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from: Jim McDonald, Irene Audain, Janet Law, Chrissie Carmouche, David Whiteoak , Margaret Watt, Pat Dawson, John McKenzie, Janis Pelosi, Frances Smith, Val Cox, Carol Wilkinson.
2. Welcome
Adam Rennie welcomed everyone to the sixth meeting of the National Care Standards Committee.
3. Note of Last Meeting and Matters Arising
3.1 As all the matters arising were covered later in the Agenda it was agreed they would be updated then.
3.2 The notes of the last meeting were then agreed.
4. Update on Doctors and Specialist Clinics
4.1 Marjory Barquist provided the Committee with an update on the Specialist Clinics Standards. The consultation closed on 8th March and the Branch had received 29 responses, a response rate of 4%. The comments received were very helpful. The Working Group had met on 24th April, discussed the comments and done redrafting work. The secretariat was now completing the redrafting work and the Standards would go to the Independent Healthcare Panel on 12th May for their comments, then come to the Committee on 6th June for final comment and signing off.
4.2 Lorraine Briggs provided the Committee with an update on the Doctors Standards. At a meeting between representatives of the SE, the Care Commission and NHS QIS it had been agreed that common standards for NHS and private medical practices, similar to those that are being developed for dentists, were not appropriate at this stage. The Secretariat was currently trying to appoint an advocate to the Working Group. Following that a meeting would be arranged as soon as possible to produce a final draft of the standards reflecting the most recent feedback given by the Committee. To an enquiry from Doreen Campbell, Lorraine advised that the decision not to go for combined standards reflected the fact that the main driver for the dentists' common standards i.e. the very large overlap between NHS and private practice, did not apply in the case of doctors.
5. New Dental Services Working Group Update
5.1 Linda Gregson provided the Committee with an update on the new Dental Services working group. The new group had their first meeting on 14th April and broadly agreed the remit. The Group decided to invite the BDA, a service user and a private practitioner to join them. The secretariat is to meet with NHS QIS and produce a draft set of standards for the working group to consider at its next meeting on 19th May. It was thought that the deadline (27th June) for the group to produce draft common standards was quite tight but the Group were happy to try and meet it.
6. Review of National Care Standards Update
6.1 Linda provided the Committee with an update on the Review. It had been agreed that it was too early to undertake a wholesale review of the Standards at the present time. The Branch had contacted research colleagues with a proposal based on a 2-stage process. Stage 1 would gauge general public awareness of the standards. Depending on the result of that, stage 2 would be either a publicity campaign to raise awareness followed by a collecting of views or simply collecting views. A meeting has been arranged between the Branch and Scottish Executive research colleagues with a view to providing a paper to the Committee for consideration at the next meeting.
7. Private Fostering Paper
7.1 Following the last meeting of the Committee Gerald Byrne (Education Department) and Jacquie Roberts had met to discuss what would be required of the Care Commission in relation to the regulation of private fostering under the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 and to develop a paper for consideration by the Committee. As Gerald could not attend this meeting, Jacquie introduced the paper.
7.2 During the discussion Linda advised that, following a meeting between the Branch, fostering policy colleagues and the Care Commission, the date of the commencement of regulation of adoption and fostering services was still being discussed. The original plan had been to commence regulation in October 2003 but deferral until at least April 2004 was now being considered. Jacquie acknowledged that the paper on the arrangements for the regulation of private fostering by the Care Commission did not go far enough. It was agreed that a further meeting was required with Gerald and policy colleagues to discuss further. Progress would be reported back to the Committee in due course. In the meantime it was agreed that if regulation of private fostering were to go ahead in October the paper presented to the Committee would provide a good starting point for the Care Commission's activity.
8. Childcare Agencies Standards
8.1 Janie Allan took the Committee through the Childcare Agencies draft standards. There was some discussion of the removal of the reference to the standards covering au pairs. Some members strongly expressed the opinion that au pair services should be regulated. The members' concerns were acknowledged. However, the removal of au pairs had been in response to advice from policy colleagues, who had confirmed that it was not the policy intention to include au pair agencies in the services to be regulated by the Care Commission.
8.2 It was agreed that, subject to taking on some minor changes discussed at the meeting, the Committee did not need to see the standards again and were happy to sign them off. The Branch would then put the standards to Ministers for approval for publication.
8.3 On behalf of the Committee, Adam thanked Janie and her team for all the work they had put into the standards.
9. AOCB
Administration of medicines in care homes.
It was noted that a representative from the Care Commission would be participating in the review of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's document on the Administration and Control of Medicines in Care Homes.
10 Date of Next Meeting
10.1 There was discussion on future meetings. It was agreed that because of summer holidays the Committee would not meet again until August. This had a direct impact on the Dentists Group, which was due to report at the end of June. It was agreed that the Dentists' Group should be advised of this and that the deadline for production of the draft standards would now be extended, giving the Group a little more time.
10.2 The next meeting will be held on Monday 6 June 2003 in St Andrew's room, CoSLA from 10.30am to 3.00pm. A buffet lunch will be provided.