We have published an invitation to tender for a new contract to deliver Expert by Experience services, starting in 2019.
Experts by Experience are people who have personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses services we regulate. During inspections, they speak to people using services and their family or organisations that support them. They may also observe how the service is delivered and speak to staff. Their findings are used to support the inspectors’ judgments on services and may be included in inspection reports.
We are seeking a contractor to continue the delivery of the Experts by Experience programme enabling us to have members of the public from diverse backgrounds to take part in inspections and other aspects of our work.
The invitation to tender is now live and more details can be found on our website
If your organisation is interested in applying read more here.
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Join us on social media at the end of week as we celebrate #NHS70 by sharing 70 #DrivingImprovement case studies from across health and social care
- Twitter: @carequalitycomm
- Hashtags: #NHS70 #DrivingImprovement
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An annual budget survey published by the Association for the Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) confirms what CQC believe, that the adult social care sector is in financial trouble.
Andrea Sutcliffe, our Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said: “Over the last two years the Care Quality Commission has raised concerns in its state of care report that the adult social care sector is precarious, with mounting pressures continuing to push the sector towards a tipping point. The ADASS budget survey reinforces our concerns and lays bare the financial pressures directors are facing which we know can have a direct and detrimental impact on the quality of care and support people receive.
“While most people do experience good care, the fragility of adult social care is real – and through CQC’s targeted reviews focussing on how older people move through health and social care services at a local level – we are seeing the impact of this across the whole health and care system.”
To view the full CQC response to the budget survey, click here.
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We have released a new report that says urgent care delivered in walk-in centres, NHS 111 services, and GP out-of-hours services doesn’t just benefit patients but the wider healthcare system by easing pressure on other services.
Challenges faced by the providers of urgent care include:
- pressures around staffing
- unsocial working hours
- high reliance on self-employed clinicians
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difficulties in accessing people’s medical records
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The majority of urgent care services are rated as good or outstanding. However voluntary groups have told us they are concerned there is not enough information about which services to contact and when, and that people need guidance to stop the reliance on emergency departments.
Professor Steve Field, our Chief Inspector of General Practice, said:
“Well-resourced and integrated urgent care not only provides safe, high quality care to people, but can also ease pressure on other areas of the NHS – particularly emergency departments during the winter period and other times of peak demand. These benefits should not be overlooked.”
Read the report here.
We commissioned Sir Paul Jenkins KCB QC (Hon) to help us to understand whether our regulation of 14 Colne Road could have been more timely and effective. In his report, Sir Paul also investigated a claim made in The Times newspaper that we “covered up” an alleged serious offence at the home in 2015.
The report finds that there was ‘no evidence whatsoever that there was any “cover-up”. There was a strong, clear focus at CQC on ensuring that people were safe; and to do so in ways which were most expeditious and effective.’
We cancelled 14 Colne Road’s registration in January last year and with the completion of the criminal investigation we are now prosecuting Hillgreen Care Ltd for two offences under the Health and Social Care Act.
You can read more about the investigation and the prosecution on our website here.
Our local system reviews look at how older people move through the health and social care system in a geographical area, focusing on how well different services work together. We’re doing this to try and help systems understand how people can have a more seamless service when being cared for by different organisations in the same area.
Our review of Wiltshire found that although all the organisations were committed to the people using services in this area, they didn’t always work well together. Find out what else we told the Wiltshire system by clicking here.
Our review of Hampshire said there was a system-wide commitment to serve the people of Hampshire and services should be encouraged to work more effectively together. The review highlights a number of areas where improvements are needed. Read more on the Hampshire system review here.
Our 2017 inpatient survey reveals what over 70,000 adults are saying about their stay in hospital. We surveyed people who stayed in hospital for at least one night during July last year.
Amongst other things, we asked people to give their opinions on:
- the care they received
- how well staff communicated with them
- whether their privacy was respected
- if they were supported enough to eat and drink
- and how well their discharge from hospital was handled
We’ll use what people have told us to keep an eye on the quality of hospital services, and find out what is important to people using these services. The results will also help us to spot changes in quality so we know where to target our inspections as well as help providers know where they need to improve.
Find out what people had to say by clicking here. You can also view the A-Z list of inpatient survey results by NHS trust.
Keep up to date on Twitter too #InpatientExperience
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Can you help more people have their say on health and care?
We're supporting the 'It Starts With You' Healthwatch campaign.
The more people share their ideas and experiences about NHS and social care, the more services can understand what works, what doesn’t and what people want from care in the future.
Healthwatch are running #ItStartsWithYou. The campaign aims to show people how their voice can help make care better and to encourage more people to share their views. Join the growing number of people sharing their ideas for better care with #Healthwatch.
Why not head over to twitter to get involved.
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What are you hearing?
We
want to hear what you’re hearing!
You
can provide vital local information that helps CQC decide where to inspect.
You
can send us your enter and view reports, surveys, comments from the public and any
other feedback you gather.
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This
intelligence can help detect changes in quality at a service, either good or
bad. You don’t need to wait until we’re inspecting a service to provide this
information to us either, you can send us what you’re hearing at any time.
You can do this via the share your experience form on our
website.
You
can also call our national customer service centre on 03000 616161 or provide
it to your local inspection team.
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