CQC claims to have transformed health and social care regulation

According to England’s care regulator, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the health and social care sector is now benefitting from a robust new inspection method the organisation has developed over the last year.

Published as part of the CQC’s ‘Annual reports and accounts 2014/15’, the new inspection model is promoted as ‘expert-led’, and ‘more detailed and extensive than ever before’. Having been through the testing, design and evaluating process, the regulator is confident that inspectors are more empowered than ever before to ensure that adults receive quality services.

Chief executive David Behan comments: “We have radically transformed how we regulate health and adult social care services in England, with rigorous and expert-led inspections and ratings to drive improvement and through increased transparency help people make informed choices about their care.

“We will always act independently and remain on the side of people who use services, their families and their carers – they are entitled to receive safe, high-quality and compassionate care.

“I would like to thank our staff and our partners for the immense hard work they have put into the last twelve months and for their commitment in delivering the changes needed.”

Part of the CQC’s pledge is to make sure that, whether for hospitals, care homes or social care services, all providers receive visits from professionals who are ‘sector-specific’ in their expertise and able to accurately assess what evidence is required in order to establish what performance rating that service should receive.

Furthermore, inspection reports are intended to avoid issues of legal compliance in favour of ‘fundamental standards’ that offer a more transparent presentation of service quality.

Other measures outlined in the report, which is being presented to Parliament today, include a new enforcement policy that will allow inspectors to hold failing providers to account, while there is also a new requirement to monitor the financial stability of care businesses.