An Introduction to the New CQC Regulations | Everything You Need to Know
Every care home aims to achieve a high CQC result.
However, were you aware that the CQC regulations have recently changed?
Effective April 6th, we’re sharing the changes you need to know in order to achieve that good or outstanding rating.
The System is Changing
Previously, coronavirus put in-person inspections on hold, creating a substantial backlog and highlighting the need for alternative ways to assess care home services. As a result, many care home providers were wrongly awarded a rating that didn’t truly reflect their care ability.
Since the pandemic, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has recognised the importance of updating this approach, working to meet the challenges of a changing health and social care sector.
Going forward, the CQC has prioritised a people-centred approach, developing their new strategy in collaboration with the public, service providers and partners. The focus will also be on promoting a more robust learning and safety culture, improving the quality of care where it’s needed most, and addressing inequalities in healthcare.
What’s Changing
Currently, the CQC considers five essential areas, known as ‘KLOE’ (Key Lines of Enquiry): safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led.
These five key questions will not change, but how the CQC judges your service in light of them.
Ratings
The CQC will continue to provide the following overall ratings for care services:
● Outstanding
● Good
● Requires Improvement
● Inadequate
It will also continue to follow these initial stages for all assessments:
Review evidence within the evidence categories it’s assessing for each quality statement.
Apply a score to each of these evidence categories.
Combine these evidence category scores to give a score for the related quality statement.
Single Assessment Framework
Registration is a crucial step in your journey. It helps the CQC recognise services that provide good care, reducing the number of services that go on to deliver poor care.
Your upcoming assessment will fall into one of the following categories:
● Planned assessment
● Responsive assessment (triggered by any concerning information revealed)
For your initial assessments using this new framework, the CQC will review your service based on your existing ratings and comprehensively evaluate your services’ performance and scores.
If your service hasn’t been inspected, the initial assessment will use questions aligned to the 34 quality statements.
Focus of our Assessment
The specific quality statements for each type of service will be determined by the CQC nationally.
These will be based on their findings from the profiling of services to check:
● Where there are risks to people using services
● Where services may have been improved
How Spectrum Care Can Help
At Spectrum Care, our care homeowners carefully select the best suppliers to ensure our members can access exceptional, fully vetted services and products, exclusive rates and prices.
Working with trusted suppliers guarantees increased efficiency and cost-effectiveness, so you can focus on what matters most—improving your care home.
Subscribing to the CQCs email newsletter is the easiest way to ensure you have access to the most up-to-date information. In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about the new CQC regulations, please contact a member of our team.
Alternatively, why not check out our recent blog and explore the importance of comprehensive employment checks?
