The CSS is a small charity providing respite services for carers of older people. Because tasks such as helping someone out of a chair to go to the bathroom are classified as ‘personal care’, the charity was informed by Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) that it needed to register as a ‘provider of personal care’ and therefore came within the scope of the Domiciliary Care National Minimum Standards.

CSCI thought that CSS fell within the regulations of a full domiciliary care agency. This basically meant that to continue helping those in need volunteers would, amongst other things, have to undertake NVQ training. The charity reluctantly decided to withdraw its personal care assistance – a change that benefited nobody.

The Better Regulation Taskforce encouraged the CSS to re-contact CSCI, which agreed to help find a solution. In order to apply a proportionate approach and in future deal more sensitively with such cases, CSCI met with CSS and listened to its views and the details of the services it delivered. The case took several months to resolve, but a solution was agreed. This involved taking a proposal to CSCI for endorsement of a policy change which would apply to voluntary services. By registering the CSS as an introductory employment agency (an agency that acts solely as introducers of workers employed by the user) rather than as a domiciliary care agency, the CSS was able to continue providing its valuable service in its existing form.