Care Standards

The purposes of Regulation of Care Act 2013 Act are to do the following for social care and non-NHS health care services:

(a) protect people who need them
(b) regulate how they are provided
(c) standardise how they are regulated
(d) promote transparency 

The Act, along with its associated regulations, has made changes that are intended to support improvement in relation to the quality and safety of care services available and delivered to vulnerable people. The production of minimum care standards is key to achieving this aim. All care services covered under the Act are now required to adhere to the standards that govern their particular service. 

These document set out the Standards that registered providers are expected to apply to their service. These are the minimum standards expected and the Regulation of Care Act requires that inspectors consider these standards when making regulatory decisions. Enforcement action can be considered where there are significant breaches of them.  

There are opportunities within the Standards for registered providers to be creative, innovative and dynamic when applying them to their service. Care service providers should use them as a baseline from which to deliver, develop and improve the services that they provide to the public.

Additional standards for other care services will be uploaded and available to download in due course.