Smiling matters: Oral health in care homes
On 24 June we published our report Smiling Matters: Oral health care in care homes. Over a four month period from October 2018 to January 2019 CQC dental inspectors visited 100 care home services across England to investigate the state of oral health care. The report publishes the findings of this review and calls for improvements in this area.
The key findings include:
- Nearly half (47%) of care homes were not providing any staff training to support people's daily oral healthcare
- 17% of care homes visited said they did not assess people's oral health on admission
- The majority (52%) of the care homes visited had no policy to promote and protect people's oral health
- 73% of residents' care plans we reviewed only partly covered or did not cover oral health at all - homes looking after people with dementia being the most likely to have no plan in place
In the report we call for a cross-sector approach to work towards resolving the concerns raised by this report. There are also examples of good practice and recommendations for the dental profession as well as adult social care providers.
Read the report in full.
Independent review into regulation of Whorlton Hall
CQC has commissioned Professor Glynis Murphy, clinical psychologist, to undertake an independent review of its regulation of Whorlton Hall between 2015 and 2019.
Professor Murphy will lead the review, which will make recommendations for how CQC’s regulation of similar services can be improved, in the context of a raised level of risk of abuse and harm.
There is a separate independent review into how CQC dealt with concerns raised in relation to the regulation of Whorlton Hall by Barry Stanley-Wilkinson. This will be led by David Noble QSO and will focus specifically on concerns raised about the draft report prepared in 2015 and how these concerns were addressed through CQC’s internal processes.
Read more.
Medicines in health and adult social care
On 6 June we published a report sharing the learning from risks and good practice in medicines, which have been found on our inspections.
Over 20,000 adult social care services are registered with CQC, including care homes, home care services and shared lived schemes. Each type of service supports people with their medicines differently, depending on their needs. There were key themes evident in our analysis, including medicines administration and record keeping.
The report contains all of the key findings for adult social care, examples of good practice, and six actions for providers that we recommend taking following our investigation to ensure medicines are managed safely.
Read the report to find out more.
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New blog post from Dr Paul Lelliott and Debbie Ivanova
In a new blog this month Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector of hospitals and lead for mental health and Debbie Ivanova, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, discusses the second phase of the review of restraint, segregation and seclusion.
This second phase will look at the use of restrictive practices in social care and supported living settings. Debbie and Paul talk about how providers and people with lived experience can get involved and what we will be looking at in more detail.
Read the full post.
Join CQC’s digital participation platform!
The pilot of our digital participation platform is still open and we want you to get involved. You can be involved in CQC’s work in different ways through the platform: reviewing documents, sharing your feedback through discussions, posting your own ideas, responding to surveys, and voting and commenting on the ideas of other users.
We want to continuously improve how we engage with you, so your feedback is vital to making the pilot worthwhile.
How do I sign up? It's easy! Follow the instructions on the sign up page.
Provider Information Return update
In November we took the decision not to continue with the development of a new digital system for the Provider Information Return (PIR) in order to undertake additional work across a number of areas.
While this work is ongoing we have continued with our existing PIR systems and processes and continued to review feedback from key stakeholders. We have used this learning to make smaller improvements to the PIR which we will start to implement from August 2019. This will include revisions to the questions, guidance and an updated process so that all providers will receive an annual PIR request.
More detail will be included in next month's bulletin.
Health and Care Innovation Expo
Registration for Health and Care Innovation Expo is now open for Health and Care Innovation Expo and the interactive agenda is now live.
The two-day event, on 4-5 September at Manchester Central, will include main-stage discussion on adult social care collaboration with NHS primary care services, as well as focus on personalised care and social prescribing.
Discounts are available for non-profit and SME providers – please contact healthexpo@dodsgroup.com for details.
Find out more at www.england.nhs.uk/expo and follow @ExpoNHS on Twitter for the latest updates.
Medicines and medical products: continuity of supply update
The Department of Health and Social Care has written to suppliers giving an update on ensuring a continued supply of medicines and medical products if the UK leaves the EU with no deal.
Read the full update.
Calling providers in the North West: take part in the pilot of the national adult social care workers survey
Skills for Care and Local Government Association (LGA) are carrying out an adult social care workforce survey and are piloting this in the North West.
If you are a provider in the North West get involved. The survey is looking to find out what staff members think about working in the sector and hopes to improve their experience.
If successful, this pilot will help shape an annual national adult social care worker survey and could be an ongoing method used to help you improve the working environment or your workforce.
The survey is being undertaken by Skills for Care and Local Government Association, supported by Department for Health and Social Care, Care Quality Commission (CQC) and North West Association of Directors of Adult Social Services.
To take part please email ascsupport@martinreddington.com and you will be sent a survey link to share with your employees.
Find out more.
Notifying CQC of the death of a service user
We have recently received queries on whether a provider needs to notify CQC of a death if the service user is in hospital at the time of death.
The following information is part of the CQC guidance and Regulation 16 which states that CQC is notified of the deaths of people who use services so that where needed, CQC can take follow-up action.
In relation to care homes: The regulation is clear that residential care home providers, providing adult social care providers need to notify us of all deaths, whether it happened in the service or not. The regulated activity is carried on 24 hours a day 365 days a week because the accommodation is always being provided.
In relation to home care providers: The provider must notify us of a death which occurs in the person’s own home and deaths that occur as a consequence of the regulated activity, which may occur later in hospital.
More information can be found here.
Listening to your feedback
We updated our guidance on how to submit factual accuracy corrections in draft inspection reports in April and have listened to your feedback. As a result, we have removed the character limit on the response form that you need to use to submit any corrections
Other news and events
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Keep up with our work with professionals and provider organisations in England by following us on Twitter @CQCProf.
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