title: Social care and independent healthcare regulation will be radically reformed under the Care Standards Act 2000. What are the implications of this important piece of legislation? How will it affect the regulation of nursing agencies and national minimum standards relating to nursing staff in care homes? Chris Hume provides some answers.
abstract: FROM APRIL 2002, regulation by the 150 local authorities and 95 health authorities of a range of institutions and agencies will become the responsibility of a single national body in England, the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC). The Care Standards Act 2000 repeals the legislation - the Registered Homes Act 1984 and relevant parts of the Children's Act 1989 - governing local authority regulation of residential homes, private children's homes and nursing agencies, health authority regulation of nursing homes and private hospitals, and the regulation of voluntary adoption agencies and voluntary children's homes by the Department of Health. Similar arrangements are being put in place in Wales and Scotland.