Re-registered services and 'excellent' ratings
Until now an existing service has not been able to be
rated as a 3 star 'excellent' service at the first key inspection
following a re-registration.
We have listened to concerns raised by providers who told us
about situations where this policy was not reasonable.
We have reviewed this and have now agreed
that;
- Brand new services that are having their very
first key inspection after registration will not
be able to achieve a 3 star excellent rating. This is because,
after only six months, there is not a sustained track record of the
service delivering good performance and managing improvement.
- There are times when the law requires a new application even
though there is already a registered provider for the service. For
the purpose of quality ratings we are calling these
're-registered' services. Examples
include:
- An existing service is taken over by a new provider;
- A sole trader becomes a limited company;
- A limited company changes its company number;
- One partner leaves a two partner partnership and the remaining
partner has to become registered as an individual because one
person cannot be a partnership;
- An individual becomes registered to carry on a service with
someone who is already registered to carry on that service but both
individuals do not wish to be registered as a partnership. This is
an 'individual in partnership with others arrangement';
- Two or more 'Industrial and Provident Society' registered
providers amalgamate.
In these circumstances it will be
possible for the 're-registered' service to achieve a 3 star
'excellent' rating at the first key inspection after the
're-registration'.
To achieve an excellent rating the service
will need to have demonstrated excellent and good practice
consistent with the Key Lines Of Regulatory
Assessment (KLORA).
Excellent services will have a sustained
track record of delivering good performance and managing
improvement.
This policy will take effect from 1st January 2008 and will be
applied retrospectively to 1st April 2007 for those services caught
by the previous policy. We will write to those services directly to
let them know about the change of policy and the impact on their
rating.