Improving social care
Find out what we do to make social care better for
people and how we take action to stop care services from doing a
bad job.
As the adult social care watchdog for England we use our powers
to be firm but fair in raising standards and stamping out bad
practice.
Our main tool for doing this is inspection.
We inspect, regulate and review all adult social care services
in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
We use our inspection reports to show a care service where they
need to improve and what they are doing well.
Many care services act on our recommendations but sometimes we
need to take action to make sure they do what we say.
Using our powers
If the care home or care service is falling well short of any of
the required standards, we may use our legal powers to tell them to
improve.
For instance, we may tell them to make sure their fire exits are
in order or to improve the way staff carry out their work.
Our inspectors will monitor the action taken by the service
provider. If necessary, we have the legal powers to close down the
service.
Improvement in council social care services
We use evidence gathered through the inspection and review
process to help councils improve the services they provide.
Councils have a responsibility to make sure the people they
serve have access to high quality social care services.
Some councils run their own care services, as well as regularly
buying in services from independent providers.
We assess how well councils fulfil this range of functions.
Every year we give each council a star rating that shows how
well the council is performing and its ability to improve in the
future.
Find out more
We promote improvement in social care and stamp out bad practice
wherever we find it.