The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator for health and social care services in England.
Its founding was the main focus of the Health and Social Care Act (2008) to provide one regulator to register and inspect health and social care services. Their aim was to ensure safety and quality of services.
CQC set out what good and outstanding care looks like and make sure that services never fall below fundamental standards. They do this by monitoring, inspecting and regulating services, as well as using feedback from service users and staff and publishing what they find to help people chose the service best suited to them.
The fundamental standards can be found in the chart below:
You must have enough to eat and drink to keep you in good health, while you receive care and treatment
You must have care or treatment that is tailored to you and meets your needs and preferences
You must be treated with dignity and respect at all times while you are receiving care and treatment
You (or anybody legally acting on your behalf) must give your consent before any care or treatment is given to you.
You must not be given unsafe care or treatment or be put at risk of harm that could be avoided.
You must not suffer any form of abuse or improper treatment while receiving care.
You must be able to complain about your care and treatment. This must be thoroughly investigated, and appropriate actions taken.
CQC ratings must be displayed where it is visible. This must also include information on their website which includes their latest CQC report of their available services.
The care provider must have enough suitably qualified, competent and experienced staff to make sure they can meet these standards. These staff should be fit to practise and subject to relevant checks.
Each provider must have sufficient plans in place to ensure they meet the required standards, including systems to assure quality and compliance is met.
Providers are to be open and honest about the care that has been provided (duty of candour). Should anything go wrong they should apologise and offer relevant support.
The premises and equipment used to provide your care should be clean, suitable and looked after including servicing if applicable.
CQC carry out regular comprehensive inspections and smaller focused ones. The latter are usually carried out if there is a change in the organisation’s circumstances or if CQC have a concern either from a comprehensive inspection or from carrying out their monitoring processes.
During a comprehensive inspection they look the answer 5 key questions. The below is from the CQC website.
Are they safe?
Safe: you are protected from abuse and avoidable harm.
Are they effective?
Effective: your care, treatment and support achieves good outcomes, helps you to maintain quality of life and is based on the best available evidence.
Are they caring?
Caring: staff involve and treat you with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
Are they responsive to people’s needs?
Responsive: services are organised so that they meet your needs.
Are they well-led?
Well-led: the leadership, management and governance of the organisation make sure it’s providing high-quality care that’s based around your individual needs, that it encourages learning and innovation, and that it promotes an open and fair culture.
For each of these questions, CQC will provide a rating: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate. There will also be an overall rating. This along with a detailed published report allows people to make informed decisions when choosing care providers.
Sphere Specialist Healthcare have been approved and registered with the Care Quality Commission. See the below link to read about us on their site.
Sphere Specialist Healthcare (cqc.org.uk)
You can contact CQC direct about your care, this can be if you wish to tell them about good care you have received or to make a complaint. Follow the link below to contact them.
Contact us | Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk)