In this update on how CQC is improving to deliver good regulation, we've summarised:
- delivering more assessments
- working in partnership
- strengthening our leadership.
Delivering more assessments
Last month, we shared the targets for the numbers of assessments we're aiming to complete by September 2026, ensuring transparency so the public, providers, and stakeholders can hold us accountable.
As of 11 August 2025, we have completed 2,108 assessments, keeping us on track to publish 9,000 reports between April 2025 and September 2026.
We remain focused on increasing the number of assessments to provide an up-to-date view of quality across health and social care and will continue working to meet our targets.
Working in partnership
We are improving our assessment approach to ensure it is fit for purpose, following recent external reviews. These changes will only succeed through genuine collaboration with the public, providers, and stakeholders.
Over the past 2 months, we have held events and workshops to shape our proposals. Discussions have focused on the number of quality statements in our framework, making frameworks sector-specific, and how we make and maintain judgements. Insights from these sessions have informed our options for change.
This partnership work will continue throughout 2025, with a public consultation planned for autumn. Our goal is to create an assessment approach that is simpler, more effective, and trusted by all.
Strengthening our leadership
We are introducing 4 new permanent chief inspectors to strengthen sector-based expertise in our assessments. These leaders will head teams focused on their specific sectors, ensuring a regulatory approach tailored to the needs of providers, the public, and stakeholders.
Two of these appointments - Professor Bola Owolabi for Primary and Community Services, and Dr Arun Chopra for Mental Health - are already in post. In September, they will be joined by Dr Toli Onon as Chief Inspector of Hospitals and Chris Badger as Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care.
In addition, we are enhancing leadership in other areas, recruiting a permanent Chief Digital, Data and Registration Officer and an Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Services. We have also welcomed new Board members, bringing diverse experience from multiple sectors.
What we’ve heard – and where we go next
In a new blog, Chris Day, Director of Engagement, summarises what we heard through our series of regional roadshows:
"Over the past 4 months, I’ve had the privilege of sitting down, in person, with hundreds of providers representing all the sectors we regulate as part of our regional roadshows. We’ve now completed our stops in Manchester, London, Leicester, and Bristol.
The purpose was simple but important: to listen, to share, and to co-design the future of regulation with the people who live it every day.
Whether you came from a large NHS trust, a small homecare service, a GP practice, or somewhere in between – thank you. Your candour, passion, and professionalism made these sessions honest, insightful, and deeply motivating.
And while each conversation was different, the messages we heard across the regions were remarkably aligned. You want a regulatory system that works with you, not just about you. One that’s transparent, proportionate, and rooted in real-world experience."
We have a WhatsApp channel where we share the latest updates on how we're working to improve.
Please note that as WhatsApp Channels may not be available to all users yet we won't be sharing content on the channel that hasn't already been shared by other means.
|
