Care England, the largest representative body for independent providers of adult social care including the Quality Care Campaign, has responded to BBC Radio 4 File on Four’s programme, Transforming Care – Is It Working.

The representative body has called for a more strategic and joined up approach to Transforming Care and said Registering the Right Support guidance is not being applied.

Care England has said Registering the Right Support should focus on the wider determinants of quality, and choice, but instead focusses only on bed numbers, rejecting applications to increase bed numbers thus fuelling the problem of vulnerable people having to remain in hospital, an inappropriate and expensive environment.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said: “Where at all possible, it is preferable to look after people in the community.

“This is what our members, independent sector care providers do, and do well however they are becoming increasingly frustrated by applications for them to develop new services to accommodate people stuck in long stay hospitals or ATUs being blocked.

“We need more quality community capacity, but from a quick poll of members we found development of 79 beds as new capacity in the community has been voluntarily halted by providers – because of fears that investing in these new facilities will result in a refusal by CQC to registers based on numbers rather than the wider quality of care, staffing and life choices offered by the provider.”

Transforming care is about improving health and care services so more people can live in the community, with the right support, and close to home.

Professor Green added: “Transforming Care is enormously important and we as a sector would like to see the NHS working in tandem with the local authorities and involving residents and relatives in their commissioning decisions, to ensure people are moved from ATUs to full and rewarding lives in local communities.”