Our monthly update for local organisations supporting Health and Care

care quality commission

The independent regulator of health and social care in England

Newsletter

Monthly update for local organisations supporting Health and Care

 

April 2021

Updated guidance on meeting the duty of candour

Doctor and Patient

We have updated our guidance for providers on Regulation 20 - the duty of candour.  The regulation puts a legal duty on all health and social care providers to be open and transparent with people using services, and their families, in relation to their treatment and care.

Our updated guidance gives a more specific explanation of what is defined as a notifiable safety incident and examples covering a range of scenarios. 

It sets out some specific actions that providers must take when a notifiable safety incident occurs. These include:

  • informing the people affected about the incident;
  • offering reasonable support;
  • providing truthful information and a timely apology.

And, it makes clear that the apology required to fulfil the duty of candour does not mean accepting liability and will not affect a provider’s indemnity cover. 

The guidance will support providers in all sectors to fully understand the duty and know what they have to do to carry it out. In turn, this will have a positive impact on people using those services


Latest COVID-19 Insight report and provider collaboration review published

Two new reports have been published which share findings from activity in urgent and emergency care over the pandemic.  The findings show that urgent and emergency care services continue to experience exceptional pressure.  We have seen some good examples of how systems are working together to respond to this.  However, we are continuing to find significant problems of access and capacity in these services, and whole systems need to work together to make further improvements if providers are to manage future pressures better.

The main challenges that we identified from our provider collaboration reviews of urgent and emergency care in eight areas of England in October 2020 are to:

  • Develop and build on relationships across local areas and systems;
  • Share important information;
  • Understand staffing - workforce strategies should cover a local system or area;
  • Understand inequality;
  • Embrace technology. 

This month's COVID-19 Insight Report supports the findings of the PCR Review. It looks at inspections of acute hospital emergency departments which took place in winter 2020. The report identifies the key factors affecting services’ ability to provide a good standard of care in emergency departments

The insight report also shares how chief pharmacists and medicines optimisation leaders in NHS trusts assured themselves of safe medicines practice during the pandemic.


Rights of individual must be paramount when deciding visiting plans

We are aware of some instances where visiting decisions are continuing to be made against government guidance.  Whether that is for visits from loved ones, people not being allowed to see visiting professionals, testing or vaccinations, the focus must always be on the individual needs and rights of the person. 

Updated government guidance was issued on 9 March states that: 

  • Every care home resident should will be able to nominate a single named visitor who will be able to enter the care home for regular visits; 
  • There should not be close physical contact such as hugging;
  • Residents with the highest care needs will also be able to nominate an essential care giver;
  • Care homes can continue to offer visits to other friends or family members with arrangements such as outdoor visiting, substantial screens, visiting pods, or behind windows.

Chief Inspectors explain updated regulatory approach

In March 2020, we paused routine inspections and focused our activity where there was a risk to people’s safety.  This was the right thing to do and we have kept that decision under review.  This year we have continued to only undertake inspection activity where there were serious risks to people’s safety or where it supported the health and care system’s response to the pandemic.

We want to have an active role in encouraging system-wide recovery.   As we move into the spring, we are looking to the future and how we can support this.  We will continue responding to risk to keep people safe from harm and protect their human rights by proactively seeking out and addressing safety and quality concerns.

We also want to ensure our future approach to regulation is right and meets the challenges of a changing health and social care sector.  The recent consultations on our new strategy and on changes for more flexible regulation set out our ambitions to regulate in a more dynamic and flexible way – moving away from using comprehensive on-site inspection as the main way of updating ratings. We will continue to have on-site inspection as a core part of our activity.  However, as well as this we will develop tools to inspect quality and risk proportionately.  We are delivering change and improvement across CQC, which will make it much easier for the public and service providers to work with us, and to enable us to help you as you work towards recovery and accelerate improvements in care.

Ted Baker, Chief Inspector of Hospitals
Dr Rosie Benneyworth, Chief Inspector of Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care
Kate Terroni, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care