It's been a busy week for CQC news - their planned August announcement on inspection frequencies has been delayed, but there's also news of a new CQC Handbook project to get involved in, plus the publication of another critical report.

In her August 29th email, Care Quality Commission interim Chief Executive Kate Terroni issued the following update, which shed light on how many assessments will be complete by Mach next year, and why there has been no firm announcement on frequency of assessments

“Our most important role is to give the public, providers and stakeholders the most up-to-date view of quality possible. Modelling of our current ways of working shows that we're currently on track to deliver around 5,000 assessments by the end of March 2025. This is not enough assessment activity to deliver our role and purpose - we need to improve and do better. I know how important it is for you to understand how often we’ll assess different types of providers, and when every provider can expect an assessment under the new approach. We'd previously hoped to publish this detail in August, but because of the work we're doing to increase the number of assessments we undertake and the work that is underway to improve how we're using our new regulatory approach, we need some more time. I'll keep you updated as this work progresses and share a full update on this as soon as possible.”

The Care Quality Commission also announced in the last week of August that it will be scrapping its “generic” inspection team model in secondary care – as Pulse reported: “it will instead give Trust CEOs named inspectors with whom they could raise concerns – reverting back to the system previously used. This move has been touted – by the organisation itself – as a way to ‘build back trust.’” When Pulse asked if the CQC if this would also apply to GP inspections, they refused to say, admitting only that all options were still open.

The CQC blog which users are directed to has also been criticised for being less than helpful – one article has no clickable link and simply states ‘CQC is Changing”, whilst there is just a single other post from 2024 (from ex-CEO Ian Trenholm, saying how things are improving), and one post from 2023.

New Handbook Project – and How to Get Involved

The message from the CEO also included this update on a potential new handbook for providers, and how you can get involved in this project:

“We have already begun conversations with providers and our colleagues about developing a regulatory handbook and improved guidance. For the public, this guidance will include what ‘good’ looks like for each sector, and for providers it will explain what you can expect from an inspection. Thank you to everyone who has already shared views on what this handbook needs to include, you can get involved in this work now through this survey.”  

New Critical Report on CQC Homecare Performance

Things continue to look perilous for the Care Quality Commission, with the publication of yet another scathing report into their functioning and inspection regime. Dr Jane Townson of the Homecare Association published a report on August 30th which identifies clear issues undermining the CQC’s performance:

• Severely constrained resources: the CQC’s resources for homecare have remained static, even though registered community social care locations have increased more than 5-fold over the last ten years, with the CQC prioritising care homes over homecare.
• Broken funding model: doesn’t reflect the real costs of proper regulation across different service sizes and types.
• IT systems which are ineffectual: the report says systems are not fit for purpose despite investment of nearly £140m over the last decade
• Poor leadership and change management: Dr Townson found that the CQC hasn’t adapted to the evolution of the care landscape, and hasn’t properly implemented regulation which is driven by intelligence.
• The alarming outcomes listed by the Homecare Association are that:
  60% of homecare providers are either unrated (23%) or have severely outdated ratings (37%).
• Insufficient inspections are jeopardising service quality, safety, and public confidence.
• Providers face crippling registration delays, inconsistent inspections, and communication breakdowns with CQC. These are causing serious financial detriment.

You can read the full report here.