Care home ratings can’t be trusted says CQC chief

The head of the Care Quality Commission has stated that the ratings provided by the organisation he’s in charge of can no longer be trusted by the public, The Sunday Times has reported.
Sir Julian Hartley, the CQC’s chief executive says the organisation has “lost its way” with too few inspections and reports that are years out of date.
Hartley added that the IT system introduced to improve the inspection process has been “a complete failure in terms of what it set out to achieve” and that reports were lost and information couldn’t be recorded. The system sometimes failed to note actions taken in response to safety concerns raised with the CQC, with staff having to review a backlog of 5,000 alerts.
He said: “If you’re thinking about where to put your mum in a care home you want to have reliable information that’s up to date, Effectively the CQC is not delivering on its operational performance. It’s not delivering for people that use services and patients.”
In the past 12 months the CQC carried out 2,500 inspections, compared to 15,800 visits made in 2019 to care homes, hospitals and GP practices, and the average age of an inspection report is now four years, the highest it’s been since the creation of the CQC in 2009.
Hartley continued: “I’m particularly concerned that as a regulator we’ve not got public confidence in our expertise and our ability to be able to spot risks”
He said he plans to turn the organisation’s performance around and he has written to CQC staff asking for feedback as part of a “truth and reconciliation” process.
The chief executive also added that he wants the health secretary Wes Streeting to lift the three-year time limit that prevents the CQC from prosecuting care homes for serious failures.
He said: “My ambition in this job isn’t to bring more prosecutions. It’s for people to get better care. We don’t think the amount of time that’s passed since someone experienced harm should be the deciding factor in terms of taking forward a prosecution.
“Since coming into this job, I’ve spoken to families who have been deeply frustrated by the fact that the shutters have come down after three years. If you look at other prosecutors and regulators like the police or the Health and Safety Executive, they’re not subject to the same limitation.”
Hartley also stated that the culture within the CQC has been poor, adding: “What it highlights is how vital it is to have a positive, open culture and psychological safety within and health and care organisation. As the regulator we should be role-modelling that.”