NATIONAL CARE STANDARDS COMMITTEE MEETING
Conference Room 4+5, Victoria Quay, Edinburgh, Monday 24 November 2003
Note of the Meeting
Present: Adam Rennie (Chair), Marjory Barquist (Secretary), Pek Yeong Berry, Lorraine Briggs, Doreen Campbell, Val Cox, Margaret Davidson, Pat Dawson, Sean Doohan. Janet Law, Gordon Masterton, Mary McCann, Jim McDonald, Roy Patterson, Jacquie Roberts, Frances Smith, David Whiteoak and Carol Wilkinson.
1. Apologies
Apologies were received from: Janie Allan, Colin Anderson, Jacqueline Hughes, Janis Pelosi and David Soutar.
2. Welcome
Adam Rennie welcomed everyone to the ninth meeting of the National Care Standards Committee.
3. Note of Last Meeting and Matters Arising
3.1 Independent Specialist Clinics Standards. Lorraine Briggs updated the Committee on the progress with the Clinics Standards. All the action points had been taken forward. In addition Standard 9.4 on NHS QIS had been revised because the existing wording was no longer appropriate. An issue had arisen in relation to Disclosure Scotland checks. Advice from Solicitors had been sought and their response was awaited.
3.2 Independent Medical Consultants and GP Services. Marjory Barquist updated the Committee on the progress made with these Standards. The same issue around Disclosure checks applied to these standards. As agreed at the last Committee meeting the introduction had been revamped to make it clear that this set of standards was part of a suite of standards covering independent healthcare. Policy colleagues with responsibility for mental health had given comments on the standard 'People attending for mental healthcare' and some redrafting would be done taking their comments onboard. The paragraph relating to NHS QIS had been agreed with NHS QIS. The next step would be the submission of the standards to Ministers to sign off for consultation.
3.3 The notes of the last meeting were agreed.
4. Dental Services Draft Standards
4.1 The Dental Services draft Standards were before the Committee for consideration. There was a parallel signing off process by NHS QIS and their project group would meet in January to consider the Standards.
4.2 Jim McDonald took the group through the draft Standards. The proposed changes agreed by the Committee after discussion are detailed in the attached paper Appendix 1.
4.3 The Committee agreed that, after the proposed changes had been made, the standards could be submitted to Ministers without further recourse to the Committee. Marjory pointed out that the NHS QIS group would also be making comments on the draft and that these would have to be considered before the standards were submitted to Ministers.
5. National Care Standards- Qualifications (Paper 2)
5.1 Carol Wilkinson took the Committee through Paper 2 on qualifications. Currently two different sets of staff qualification requirements were being applied by the two regulatory bodies (SSSC and the Care Commission) and this was causing problems for providers, care staff and the regulators. The National Care Standards for adult care homes stated that 'by 2005 at least half the staff who care for you directly will have received basic training in care (at least SVQ level 2 or equivalent)'. The National Care Standards for Early Education and Childcare up to the age of 16, do not contain this specific requirement, but refer instead to the role of the SSSC in setting qualification levels for registered staff.
5.2 Carole confirmed that it had not yet been decided what level of qualification would be needed by direct care staff in adult care homes in order to register with the SSSC. However, the timescales for registration are that staff will be able to register from 2006 if they either have the appropriate qualification or are working toward it. If they are working toward it they will require to re-register from 2009.
5.3 An amendment to the adult care home standards had been proposed by the SSSC. At a meeting of SSSC, the Care Commission and the two sponsorship branches it had been agreed that Carole would provide suggested wording for the relevant standards. The proposed wording was detailed in Paper 2.
5.4 Val Cox pointed out that changing the standards might cause providers to put staff training on hold and thereby have a negative effect on the service. It was agreed that further work was needed on this issue. SSSC, the Care Commission, the sponsorship branches and relevant SE policy colleagues would need to be involved in discussions. Any change to the standards would require Ministerial agreement and consultation.
6. Private Fostering
6.1 Gerald Byrne (Adoption and Fostering Branch) had provided Jacquie Roberts with an update on private fostering and Jacquie passed this information on to the Committee. Gerald's update included a table indicating the number of private fostering arrangements that local authorities were aware of in their area. Regulation of adoption and fostering was scheduled to begin in April 2004. Jacquie remained concerned about the need for a national awareness campaign on private fostering. She would raise this again with Gerald at their next meeting on 28 November.
6.2 Jacquie suggested that allowing a preparatory year for the regulation of private fostering would be one way of approaching it. She would discuss this with Gerald and report on progress at the next Committee meeting. The Committee made no decision on whether to draft national care standards for private fostering.
7. Review of the National Care Standards (Paper 3)
7.1 The Committee considered the paper on the review of the standards. The paper invited comments on the practical ideas it set out and in particular the role the Committee might play in the system proposed in Annex A for handling the review; and to consider its membership.
7.2 In discussion it was pointed out that 'consultation fatigue' was an issue. The feedback received from users of the service is that there are too many consultations going on at the moment. There was uncertainty about whether the Standards were reaching the people who use services and a suggestion that an awareness raising campaign was needed. With regard to the membership of the Committee it was suggested that the process for review would determine the need for the membership to be reviewed.
7.3 It was suggested that it would be helpful to know the protocol for any urgent and necessary revisions to the Standards. It was agreed that the SE would draft a procedure for this and bring it to the Committee for consideration. 7.4 Jacquie suggested that a presentation by the Care Commission on how they were using the standards might be useful to the Committee. It was agreed that this would be considered for a future meeting.
8. AOCB
8.1 There was no other competent business.
9. Dates of next meeting
9.1 The next meeting is scheduled for Monday 26 January 2003 in Conference Room 2, Victoria Quay from 10.30am . The meeting may need to be cancelled.