In a nutshell, SimpleNeeds and its users are exempt from official regulation. Read on to find out why.
For the record, here is the relevant legislation :
Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010
Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009
However the legislation is not written in a manner that's easy to understand. Instead we rely on the interpretation provided by The Care Quality Commission whose main responsibility is to Regulate social care providers where not exempt. Their website has a great deal of information and documents, two of which are relevant to SimpleNeeds.
Care Quality Commission - Who needs to Register (a web page with many links)
Care Quality Commission - The Scope Of Registration (a 49 page pdf document),
These documents make clear that the main focus is on regulation of care homes and care agencies. Private individual arrangements and introductory agencies such as SimpleNeeds are only mentioned as exemptions. So its the exemptions that are of interest, and here are some extracts.
"Where a person makes their own arrangement for nursing care or personal care, and the nurse or carer works for them without an agency involved in managing or directing the care, the service is exempt."
"Where a person makes their own arrangement for nursing care or personal care, and the nurse or carer works for them without an agency or employer involved in managing or directing the care that the nurse or carer provides, the nurse or carer does not need to register for that service." That includes you when you are using SimpleNeeds to make a private care arrangement. Neither party is required to register.
"Also exempt are organisations that only help people find nurses or carers (often known as introductory agencies) but do not have any role in managing or directing the care that a nurse or carer provides when an individual employs them for their care. These exemptions are also described in section three of this guidance, under the activities of ‘personal care’ and ‘nursing care’."
That includes SimpleNeeds. Our website is not required to register, actually cannot register as the criteria are not met.
The exemption does also include people using Individual budgets and Personal Allowances, as you are still acting as a private individual, making your own arrangements. The connection with the Local Authority makes no difference.
DBS checking is only required in a Registered Provider scenario. It's optional for those exempt from registration.
Individual user trusts, set up to make arrangements for nursing care or personal care on behalf of someone who lacks capacity to do it for themselves, are also exempt. This exemption is set out in a different set of regulations to the other issues covered in this guidance. See regulation 4(4) of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009.
Personal care and nursing care are both included as regulated activities under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2009. The exemptions apply because the care is provided without the management and direction of any agency and the arrangement is private between individuals.
Care Quality Commission - The Scope Of Registration (49 pages) This publication is for people and organisations that provide, or are intending to provide, healthcare or adult social care in England. It is to help them understand whether they need to register with the Care Quality Commission under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act). It is not a definitive description of the law, but it aims to help those providing services and answer as many of their questions as possible. Publication date: Mar 2010