CQC asks for views on 'new, independent and rigorous inspection regime'

The Care Quality Commission is asking people who use and run health and adult social care services and the general public for their views on its new "rigorous" plans for inspecting and rating care services.

Over the past year, CQC has been developing a new approach to the way it works. The main elements of the new approach are larger, more specialist and expert inspection teams led by chief inspectors plus greater involvement in inspections by members of the public with personal experience of services. It has also pledged to make better use of information to identify risks and plan inspections and introduce ratings for all health and adult social care services.

CQC chief executive, David Behan, said: “Over the past six months we set out proposals for different types of care services and we have been testing our new style inspections in hospitals, mental health and community health services and will be testing them in adult social care services and GP practices from this month.

"The changes we are making are vital to ensuring that we are able to make sure that health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high quality care and encourage care services to improve. Throughout these changes, we will always be on the side of people who use services and it is important to us that we hear what people think of our plans."

The consultation launched is on the detailed guidance on how CQC will regulate, inspect and rate NHS acute hospitals, mental health services, community health services, GP practices, out of hours services, care homes, home care services and hospice services.

CQC is seeking views on a range of issues about the new approach including the proposals for a rating system, CQC’s view of what a service looks like for any of the rating categories – outstanding, good, requires improvement, inadequate.

The consultation also explores the questions inspectors need to ask to determine if a service is safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs and well-led plus the frequency of inspections.

Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt said: "A new, independent and rigorous inspection regime will give the public vital information on health and social care performance, and the chief inspectors will shine a light on areas where improvement is needed. The CQC is seeking views on important elements of their inspection programme and I would encourage patients and all other interested parties to respond. This will help to drive up quality."

The consultation runs until 4 June 2014. Following the consultation, the CQC will publish a final update of this guidance in September 2014 before formally introducing the changes in all these types of services from October 2014, when the regulations underpinning them come into effect.

Human rights will also be an important element of the inspections. Alongside the handbooks, CQC is publishing overview documents from the chief inspectors for hospitals, primary care and adult social care. All the documents and information on how people can take part in the consultation are on CQC’s web site www.cqc.org.uk/InspectionChanges2014