Plans to register and inspect nursing agencies and residential family centres have been delayed by four months.

The Department of Health confirmed on Tuesday it had issued the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) with a new start date for the registration and inspection of domiciliary care services, nurses agencies and residential family centres.

The regulations and national minimum standards will now come into force from January 2003 and not September 2002.

The new registration process will be implemented when new national minimum standards have been finalised by the Department of Health.

Meanwhile, local authorities will retain responsibility for monitoring and inspecting nurses agencies and will also need to have appropriate monitoring processes in place for residential family centres and domiciliary care services.

The NCSC is an independent regulator, set up under the Care Standards Act 2000, to inspect and regulate social care services and private and voluntary health care services across the country, taking over from more than 230 local authorities and health authorities.

The new system was intended to replace a "a piecemeal approach to inspection with unacceptable differences in quality standards across the country and confusion for service users and their relatives".

Ron Kerr, chief executive of the NCSC, said: "It has not proven possible for the Department of Health to publish the regulations and standards in their final form in time to allowproviders a reasonable period to gear up for implementation.

"The task of the NCSC is to safeguard the welfare of individuals in these establishments and, as such, we appreciate that time must be spent ensuring the quality and viability of regulations."