Ms Susan Cliffe:

It is dynamic. If somebody moves to work in a nursing home or transfers between nursing homes, it might cause one of our inspectors to reassess their conflict of interest policy. It is not just done on an annual basis but is run on an everyday basis, if you like.

The three-year mark has served us well, but the question will always be to the inspector, "Do you feel you can independently inspect this centre and come to the judgments that would need to be made at the time?" If the inspector is comfortable that sufficient time has passed, they do not believe there could be any conflict of interest and we do not have a reason to believe there could be a perception of a conflict of interest, then that three-year patter has served us well but I am mindful that it is dynamic and it can change on a day-to-day basis. I personally had to declare a conflict of interest in the last couple of weeks because of a member of my family taking up employment in a nursing home. I will not have any oversight of that nursing home.