Join our digital participation platform, updates to NHS provider guidance and more

This bulletin was sent at 30-04-2019 03:07 PM BST

The independent regulator of health and social care in England

Our monthly update for providers and professionals working in healthcare

April 2019

A message from Prof Ted Baker

I often talk about the importance of providers looking to each other in order to learn from good practice to improve their services and ultimately, positively impact patient care. Part of our role as a regulator is to help encourage this improvement, which we aim to do by sharing some of these good practice examples through our various publications, surveys and major reports.

Another way in which we are able to assess the progress trusts are making is through our inspection programme. We are coming to the end of the first round of our current inspections of NHS trusts, and I am pleased to see that we have seen acute and mental health trusts improving their ratings. This is a great achievement, especially considering the continued financial, operational and workforce pressures trusts continue to operate under.

We are also taking the opportunity to reflect on our current approach, including the well-led and use of resources assessments, and have already made some changes which we hope will improve your experience when you interact with us.

One such change is a streamlining of the factual accuracy process. While the overall process hasn’t changed, we have made the guidance and response form clearer on what type of information providers should submit, and when and how you need to respond. Visit our website for more information.

Join CQC’s digital participation platform!

We are piloting a different way of gaining your feedback and ideas to shape our work – a digital platform. You will be able to get involved in different ways: sharing your feedback through discussions, reviewing documents, responding to surveys, posting your own ideas, and voting and commenting on the ideas of others.

This is a pilot so we’ll be collecting views throughout on what people think and how we could make it even better!

How do I sign up? It's easy! Follow the instructions on the sign up page.

You can use an email address or your Google or Facebook account. We’ll also ask you a few questions about what groups you represent and what health and social care services you use, work in or are interested in. This information is important to us because it will help us make sure you see the participation opportunities that are relevant to your interests.

Updates to NHS provider guidance and trust-wide well-led framework

We have made some minor updates to our NHS provider guidance and to the trust-wide well-led framework. Updates to the provider guidance include:

Checking the factual accuracy of your draft report
Updating ratings and displaying a provider’s regulatory history
Clarification on how we calculate inspection frequencies
Recognised accreditation schemes
Mental Health Act

We have also made additions in agreement with partner organisations including NICE, NHS England and NHS Improvement. This includes information relating to cost saving guidance, evidence-based interventions, managing conflicts of interest, always events, quality, service improvement and redesign resources, and learning from deaths.

Improved guidance on how to display your ratings

Ratings help people find out about the quality of health and care services. It is a legal requirement for services to display their rating at each location delivering a regulated service and, if applicable, on their website.

We have improved our guidance on how services can comply with the regulation.

Continuing regulatory histories

As part of our new approach to registration we have changed the way we display a provider’s history. This means that the ratings information, inspection reports and details of enforcement action will stay with a location when it moves or changes ownership. This will ensure:

Greater transparency for the public.
Providers will not lose any existing ratings for their locations.
CQC can take a more proportionate and efficient approach to inspecting after a change of registration.

This change came into effect on 1 April 2019 and applies to all registration applications completed from this date.

We have been working in coproduction with providers, the public and other key stakeholders to develop this approach, including guidance for providers which is available on our website.

New agreement between CQC and the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch

CQC and the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) have published a new Memorandum of Understanding. The agreement sets out how we will work together to promote the safety and wellbeing of people receiving NHS care in England. It is underpinned by the following principles:

respecting each other's independent status
cooperating in an open and transparent way
making decisions based on promoting people's safety and encouraging high quality care

In line with these principles, we will share information about the safety and quality of NHS services and evidence of safety risks or emerging themes that may indicate wider safety issues. We will also cooperate on national safety reviews and work together in the public interest to support improvement.

Reporting to the LeDeR programme

The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) programme aims to make improvements to the lives of people with learning disabilities. It is delivered by the University of Bristol and commissioned by the healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) on behalf of NHS England.

A key part of the programme is to support local areas to review the deaths of people with learning disabilities to take forward any lessons learned and make improvements to service provision.

All deaths of people with learning disabilities should be notified to the LeDeR team. This is to help determine the numbers of people with learning disabilities who die each year, and their characteristics. For more information, visit the LeDeR programme website.

Other news

Kate Terroni, CQC's new Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care starts her role on 1 May.
We will be exhibiting at the RCN Congress, taking place from 19-23 May in Liverpool. Visit us on stand D24.
We have added further prompts to some statutory notification forms. Read the full update.
The Human Tissue Authority (HTA) have launched a series of online tests on their governing legislation to provide a useful resource for professionals who work with human bodies, tissue, cells and organs. The tests are non-compulsory, taken anonymously, and will not count as an indicator of compliance against HTA licensing standards.
NICE has published a summary bringing together all its recommendations and safety advice on the drug valproate.