Regulating Adult Social Care (RASC)

The present Labour Government’s modernisation strategy has strengthened the key role of state-sponsored regulation in the delivery of public services - see, for example, the Department of Health’s Modernising Social Services 1998 White Paper.

Regulation is a very significant form of managing public services, as central government increasingly relies upon regulatory agencies (such as inspectors and auditors) and regulatory mechanisms (such as national service standards and performance indicators) to measure and improve the performance of agencies providing public services.

The main stakeholders within the regulatory regime surrounding adult social care include:-

• Central government sponsors of regulatory agencies - e.g. Department of Health.
• Regulatory agencies - e.g. the Commission for Social Care Inspection.
• Regulated agencies - e.g. local authority social services departments and other statutory, private and voluntary providers of adult social care, plus groups representing regulated agencies and their adult social care professionals and workers such as the Association of Directors of Social Services, Local Government Association.
• Users of adult social care services and their carers, plus groups representing service users and carers – e.g. Age Concern, Carers UK, MIND.

This research project addresses the following significant questions with regard to the regulation of adult social care:-

• What are the processes of the regulation of adult social care as perceived by different stakeholders?
• What impact does regulation have upon adult social care?

 Specifically, the research project will:-

• Outline and examine the nature and role of regulatory agencies and mechanisms within the government’s modernisation programme for adult social care.
• Survey the key changes in the regulation of adult social care services from the ‘pre-modernisation’ to the ‘modernisation’ phase, and monitor ongoing changes during the course of the project.
• Compare and contrast the regulatory infrastructures of adult social care services provided by social care agencies in different sectors to different key adult groups.
• Survey and evaluate existing criteria and measures of performance for adult social care services from the perspectives of key stakeholders.
• Examine the extent to which the views of users of adult social care services are incorporated into the regulation of these services, and examine ways in which their incorporation can be improved.
• Assess the impact of regulation upon relations between the centre and local delivery agencies in the implementation of central policy strategy surrounding the delivery of adult social care services.