Lamb ‘musing’ over commissioner ratings

Care Minister Norman Lamb could oversee calls for care commissioners to be rated in the same way that care providers are, following a debate held with independent providers at last month’s Social Care Forum. During questions from delegates at the Laing & Buisson hosted event, in response to an exhange focused on funding issues and a concern that commissioners more often than not adopt the lowest cost models, the minister said that among the raft of measures he would like to roll out across the social care sector (including a clamp down on any companies failing to pay the national minimum wage for carers – see this issue news) was a concept to introduce a rating system for commissioners, similar to the Jeremy Hunt announced plan to usher in Ofsted-style ratings of providers (CCMn April 2013). Mr Lamb told a packed Westminster audience made up of senior care executives: We seem to have created a model of commissioner/provider where we focus on the quality of the provider. I think that is a good thing because people can aspire to get to the next level in terms of quality but we do not do the same with commissioners.