On 23 October, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published its annual report on the State of Health and Social Care in England.
CQC has expressed concern about the fragmentation of adult social care and the lack of training received by care staff which means that care workers do not always have the necessary skills or knowledge to safely meet people’s needs.
This is very worrying, especially as we often hear on our adviceline from families who feel dismissed and ignored when they raise a concern about care that they have witnessed.
Care Rights CEO Helen Wildbore attended the launch of the report and was able to share with the CQC leadership how callers to our adviceline want the regulator to be doing more. Helen highlighted that all too often concerns that families raise with the regulator are being deferred to the Ombudsman rather than being investigated by CQC as a possible breach of regulations.
During the launch event, Baroness Neuburger, CQC Chair, stated several times that she expects the regulator to be getting out and about more with more frequent and more in-depth inspections.
We welcome this commitment as it is vital that the regulator goes into care settings to directly witness what culture, practice and leadership is like on the ground. We hope that with increased frequency of inspections there will be greater accountability.
Helen also asked the incoming CEO Emily Miles what her priorities were for turning the page on a challenging period for CQC, having been called ‘not fit for purpose’ by the Government.
Emily Miles said that after an initial internal focus to improve efficiency, she expected to use the wealth of data and insights gathered by the regulator to focus on the biggest risks in health and social care systems.
We look forward to working constructively with Emily and her team in order to make sure that every individual can feel confident that they will receive good care when they need it and that poor care will be investigated and challenged.