Dear Colleagues
You may of heard the latest report regarding the poor performance of the CQC and their perceived lack of value for money from the National Audit Office. Full BBC coverage can be found by clicking on the link at the end of this newsletter.
The report has been scathing of the CQC’s performance over the transition registration process and its failure during this time to meet its commitments on regulation inspections for adult health and social care provision in England – only managing to achieve 47% of its intended target of inspections.
The report criticised the Commission for its failure to inspect, the issue of staffing levels and the money wasted during this period was considered not to be in the best interest or value for the public.
Whether this criticism is justified or not I will leave it to you to decide.
The leadership of the CQC was further criticised by one of its own board members to the Public Enquiry dealing with the Mid-Staffordshire failings, calling into question the quality of leadership internally and the strategy in providing direction of the CQC.
However the Commission has, in its defence, issued a statement from Cynthia Bower, Chief Executive of the CQC, stating that during the transition period the CQC did not perform as well as expected. The fact that the Commission was carrying out the work of three previous regulators with less funds and had in fact turned around its performance within the last year.
She went on to state that the CQC had carried out over 1400 onsite inspections during October and produced a report into the state of nutritional support in hospitals. In fact since 2011 90% of compliance reviews included an onsite inspection. Cynthia reiterated further the CQC’s commitment to carry on with this level of inspection.
This linked to the recent report published by the National Audit Office NAO identifying that the demand for Domiciliary and Care Home provision was set to increase by nearly 1% from the current provision of £23 billion over the next 10 years. Effectively a need for a further £130 million worth of provision.
This means more of our population living longer and requiring more care intervention. In fact, by 2081 nearly a quarter of the UK population will be over the age of 65. This provides a challenge to both the Regulator and Providers of care, with increased demand comes increased choice and stricter controls.
The general point to note is that the CQC will continue to increase its regulatory activity and not decrease it.
We at Compass-NE Ltd have been providing support to the adult health and social care sector for 5 years now, and have helped over 2000 organisations and individuals meet the demands of the CQC and the Essential Standards.
We can support you in meeting these challenges through our focused interventions which include: onsite audits to identify your compliance state and areas of concern; PCA completion, and ongoing assistance through our membership scheme.
Breakdown of Services
Onsite Audit
A desktop audit assessing your service against the 16 assessable outcome areas and identifying areas of concern, gaps in provision, policy or procedures and action planning for compliance.
This process can take from 2 days to 1 week depending upon the size and complexity of the service.
Provider Compliance Assessment Tool Completion
We will assist you to complete all 16 PCA’s, map appropriate evidence and provide you with an effective tool from which you can monitor ongoing compliance as well as meeting Regulation 10 (Outcome Area 16: Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision) of the legislation.
Membership
Our membership scheme provides you with the opportunity to have your own consultant on tap to assist you throughout the year with your compliance needs. Members also benefit from reduced cost on site visits as well as free visits as part of your membership cost.
PCA Guides
These guides have been developed using our experience gained from assessing the Essential Standards across many providers and assisting them to complete their PCA’s.
Our guides are a distillation of all the PCA’s we have assisted our clients to complete to date. They are based upon real experiences of providers in delivery of adult health and social care. They also come with suggested sources of evidence and a 2 hour telephone support session.
For further details on any of these support methods contact out team on 01325 318 028.
CQC News