The CQC announces its plan for the next three years will be 'focused on people'

The Care Quality Commission has launched its three-year plan to improve the way it inspects and regulates care in the United Kingdom.

Throughout the plans, the CQC has emphasised its commitment to patients and service users, promising to publish better information so that the public can easily find and understand reports they provide on care services.

The CQC has also promised to inspect areas which are most important to people, which includes inspecting the safety and effectiveness of services, how well they are led, and whether they can respond to people's needs.

CQC chair David Prior said: “This is an important moment for CQC. We have recognised we need to change and are determined to do so swiftly. We will work with those we regulate and our own staff to develop a better system of regulation and to build a high-performing organisation that is well run and has an open culture that supports its staff, and is focused on people.”

Inspection teams will be spending more time talking to people to gain their views and personal experiences of care, as well as listening to concerns raised by care staff.

Further changes include teams becoming larger, with a chief inspector leading inspections of hospitals and social care and support, with clinical experts and experts by experience also becoming part of the inspection teams.

CQC chief executive David Behan said; “People have a right to expect safe, effective, compassionate, high quality care. CQC plays a vital role in making sure that care services meet those expectations.

“In developing our plans for the next three years we have looked closely at what we do and listened to what others have told us, to make sure we focus on what matters to them. The plans also take account of Robert Francis’s report into the failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and the response by the Secretary of State for Health.”

The plans include the introduction of a programme for failing trusts to ensure immediate action is taken to protect people and deal with the failure. The CQC intend to make sure that information and evidence is used more effectively to predict, identify and respond to these failing services.

Directors, managers and leaders of an organisation applying to provide care services will have to commit to meeting the CQC’s standards and will be more thoroughly tested on their ability to do so.

NHS Confederation chief executive Mike Farrar commented on the new strategy, saying: "It is clear the CQC is working hard to regain the confidence of the NHS and the public. This strategy shows a strong commitment to developing a system that is responsive, specialist in its sector and provides people with the information they need about the services they use.

"The CQC can enhance this by doing more to help promote good practice and encourage organisations to do more to learn from each other.

"We need informed, and appropriate inspection, not necessarily more inspection. The CQC's move to re-establish inspection teams with specialist expertise will go a long way to re-instil confidence in its abilities."

He added: “Healthcare is, by its nature, risky. However good a regulatory system, it cannot guarantee safety and we should never depend on it to do so. We need it to help minimise and manage risks.

Des Kelly, executive director of the National Care Forum (NCF) has welcomed the new strategy and said: “The publication of 'Raising Standards,putting people first' the new strategy by CQC, which sets out their intentions for the next three years, represents an important, and probably essential, step in the efforts to change the way in which the regulator operates.

“The strategy is a clear and unambiguous statement of intent. It is encouraging that CQC have used the process of developing the new strategy to demonstrate that the organisation is listening and learning. The NCF welcomes this significant shift in emphasis and the recognition that the way in which the regulator will now work to ensure that social care services are safe and of good quality.” Mr Behan of CQC concluded: “We recognise that quality care cannot be achieved by inspection and regulation alone – that lies with care professionals, clinical staff, providers and those who arrange and fund local services – but we will set a bar below which no provider must fall and a rating which will encourage and drive improvement.