Dear Valued Clients,
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has recently announced some important updates to their regulatory approach. As your trusted CQC consultancy partner, we at Cura Compliance want to provide an overview of these changes and how they may impact you.
Key Points:
1. CQC is making leadership changes, including recruiting a new Chief Executive and appointing 3 Chief Inspectors for the health and care sectors they regulate. This aims to strengthen their oversight.
2. CQC is reviewing their assessment framework with input from industry experts. This review will inform longer-term improvements to make assessments clearer and more consistent.
3. Pilot projects are underway to test new approaches, such as:
– Better managing relationships between CQC and providers
– Having CQC operations managers oversee teams in specific sectors
– Streamlining the assessment process by scoring at the quality statement level and rating at the key question level
– Improving technology for assessments, factual accuracy checks, report production, and registration
4. CQC aims to increase the number of monthly assessments through these internal improvements and recruiting more staff.
5. Assessments of local authorities’ Care Act duties are proceeding with ongoing improvements. However, assessments of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are currently paused.
6. CQC wants to co-design their approach with providers, focusing initially on defining what “good” looks like and developing a clear regulatory handbook. Stay tuned for opportunities to provide input.
While these changes are promising, some open questions remain:
– What will be the exact criteria and process for the streamlined assessments?
– How can providers effectively engage in co-designing the new approach?
– When will the paused ICS assessments resume and what will they entail?
We will continue to monitor CQC’s updates closely and advocate on behalf of our clients. In the meantime, we’re here to support you in navigating these changes. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.
Best regards,
The Cura Compliance Team
Link to the article:
https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/re-building-trusted-approach-our-regulation