Care Quality Commission
Monday, 13 February, 2017

Care Quality Commission (CQC) consultation on planned changes to the regulation of health and adult social care services.

The CQC has carried out a comprehensive inspection of every NHS trust in England. It proposes to use this understanding together with improved systems for gathering intelligence to move towards more targeted inspections for NHS trusts. This consultation seeks comments on principles forĀ  regulating new models of care and complex providers; changes to assessment frameworks to reduce complexity and create more consistency; registering services for people with learning disabilities; and regulating NHS trusts and foundation trusts from April 2017.

The College response notes the new principles should encourage change and will be important in assessing and rating new complex organisations. The proposed two assessment frameworks (one for health and one for adult social care) should provide an easier to understand system. A mentoring approach to improvement is suggested, as a 'hard line' approach is likely to damage morale.