The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has accepted the high-level recommendations of two reviews which identify” serious organisational failings”.

In response to the final report of Dr Penny Dash’s review into the operational effectiveness of the CQC and the first report of Professor Sir Mike Richards‘ independent review into the implementation of the CQC’s single assessment framework, the regulator has committed to:

Appoint at least three chief inspectors to lead on regulation and improvement of hospitals, primary care, and adult social care services. The CQC will also consider whether a fourth chief inspector is needed to lead on regulation and improvement of mental health services.

Modify the current assessment framework to make it simpler and ensure it is relevant to each sector. This will enable the CQC to carry out and report on inspections more quickly. It will retain the five key questions (safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led) across all sectors, but will amend the 34 quality statements to ensure clarity and remove duplication. The CQC will stop scoring individual evidence categories.
 

Ensure the right systems and tools are in place to support its regulatory activity. The CQC is working to stabilise and fix its regulatory platform and provider portal in the immediate term. In the meantime it is exploring options for delivering assessment activity away from the current systems, so that it can rapidly assess, rate, and publish reports for the public.

Improve the experience for providers registering with the CQC.

Following the report from Dr Penny Dash which talks about the need to change assessments of local authorities and integrated care systems. The CQC has paused its assessments of integrated care systems for six months in order to modify its current assessment framework.

The CQC will work with providers, colleagues, people who use services, local government, and wider stakeholders to develop a plan on how it will implement these changes. The Care Provider Alliance will support the CQC in gathering further feedback from adult social care providers on the use of the assessment framework.

Ian Dilks, CQC chair, said: “Both reviews have reaffirmed the support for a robust health and care regulator and recognised the dedication and experience of CQC staff. We are committed to rebuilding trust in CQC’s regulation and are taking action to make sure we have the right structure, processes, and technology in place to help us fulfil our vital role of helping people get good care and supporting providers to improve.”

Professor Sir Mike Richards said: “CQC’s transformation programme has not delivered what was intended. CQC urgently needs to return to a structure where inspections teams are led once again by chief inspectors relating to the different sectors that CQC regulates. In addition, the current assessment framework needs to be radically simplified and the major problems with the new IT system need to be rectified. I know that work is already underway to address these areas.”

He added: “I believe that CQC’s problems can be fixed relatively quickly under the leadership of Julian Hartley, the incoming chief executive. Providers have overwhelmingly reaffirmed that they want good regulation, and many CQC staff remain fully committed to delivering this. These changes will help the regulator to effectively deliver its crucial work of ensuring that people get high quality, safe care.”