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The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is consulting about changes to the fees it proposes to charge providers of health and adult social care services for 2012/13. These fees cover CQC’s work in registering providers and monitoring their compliance with government standards of safety and quality.

The consultation sets out proposals to extend the fees scheme to providers of out-of-hours services, who will register for the first time with CQC from April 2012, and adjust parts of the existing scheme. The consultation also sets out CQC’s strategic approach to fees for future years, which will involve more detailed consultation over the next year for phased implementation from 2013/14 onwards.

The three main proposals for the April 2012 fees scheme are to:

• extend the scheme to providers of primary care out-of-hours services entering the registration system from 1 April 2012.
• reduce the fees in the middle bandings for providers of dental and independent ambulance services.
• reduce the fee in the lowest level banding for providers of adult social care services without accommodation.

Cynthia Bower, CQC’s Chief Executive, said: “At this stage we are only proposing some minor changes to the fees scheme. These will be the first steps in a longer term strategy for a scheme that we will develop in close cooperation with providers.”  

Notes to editors

For further information please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.

• The consultation document can be downloaded here

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. We make sure that care in hospitals, dental practices, ambulances, care homes, in people’s own homes, and elsewhere, meets government standards of quality and safety -  the standards anyone should expect whenever or wherever they receive care. We also protect the interests of vulnerable people, including those whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.

We register services if they meet government standards, we make unannounced inspections of services, both on a regular basis and in response to concerns, and we carry out investigations into why care fails to improve. We continually monitor information from our inspections, from information we collect nationally and locally, and from the public, local groups, care workers and whistleblowers.  We put the views, experiences, health and wellbeing of people who use services at the centre of our work and we have a range of powers we can use to take action if people are getting poor care.

Our powers to set fees under the Health and Social Care Act 2008

Section 85 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the 2008 Act) allows us to charge fees for a number of activities relating to registration. These include applications to register, vary the conditions of an existing registration, cancel registration, vary or cancel a period of suspension of registration, and for maintaining registration. The Act allows for different levels of fees in different types of provider and in different circumstances, and for CQC to identify factors we can use to calculate the fee (for example, a large provider might pay more than a small one). CQC is also required to consult on fee proposals and to obtain approval from the Secretary of State. The Act also allows for the possibility of extending fee setting powers beyond registration and into CQC's other functions, if regulations are made to enable that.