Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:40 pm on 22 May 2018.
Thank you very much. Thank you, Caroline, and thank you as well for the recognition that you made there very clearly of those who work within the sector. Too often, you only see the bad headlines when they hit, and we forget about the army of people out there who are doing tremendous work every single day. So, thank you for that.
You remind us as well of how far we've travelled with the backing of this Assembly for a different approach towards how we provide social care and well-being and quality-of-life outcomes for individuals in Wales—in difficult times as well, but we are changing the whole landscape of how we deliver social care.
It's too early, I have to say, as I mentioned to Suzy as well, to give any feedback on the voluntary registration for domiciliary care, but I anticipate that sometime in the autumn we'll be able to give an update on how many people are availing themselves of that, and I'll come back to the Assembly with that.
If I turn to the issue of market stability, the Welsh Government are going to be working with Care Inspectorate Wales and other stakeholders to develop regulations in terms of market stability and financial oversight of service providers of regulated services, with an intention to implement arrangements from April 2020. Now, we've decided—or I've taken the decision—to implement these provisions from April 2020 as this actually coincides with the completion of the re-registration of existing providers under the new system. So, this provides a good opportunity, a nice synchronicity there. The nature of the care market may change as well as a result of this process. For example, some providers may use this, this process, as part of an opportunity to restructure or to merge the current portfolio of services. So, it's probably prudent to allow enough time for these changes to take place and to learn from them.
It also allows us the opportunity to consider how market stability reports required under the Act will align with our population assessments, which I mentioned, and our area plans under the 2014 Act. But in the meantime, that's not all—there are a number of interim measures in place to support market stability. So, Care Inspectorate Wales will go on doing the work it currently does to gather intelligence on care providers, which can, and is, shared with local authorities as necessary, in terms of contingency planning and so on. And it's also looking to prove its oversight of larger providers through link officers and seeking to improve intelligence sharing with other social care regulators throughout the UK.
And finally, on that market stability, it's a critical issue, because we know the stresses within the providers at the moment—big and small. The Regulated Services (Notifications) (Wales) Regulations 2017, which came into force this April, prescribes specific notification requirements on social care providers. So, through enabling Care Inspectorate Wales to share key information about changes to providers, these regulations give local authorities notice of key changes affecting the market in their areas, and it can better inform decisions when planning and commissioning future services. So, we can do things now, as well as looking to the future as well.