CQC to restart inspections today

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) will restart inspections from 1 February with a focus on the urgent and emergency care system, the regulator has announced.

In December, CQC postponed inspections of some services to support the acceleration of the vaccination booster programme. They also prioritised activity to help create more capacity in adult social care.

However, considering the current situation – including the easing of restrictions across the country – they have reviewed and updated their regulatory approach. From 1 February the CQC will inspect where:

• there is evidence that people are at risk of harm. This applies to all health and social care services, including those where inspections were previously postponed except in cases where we had evidence of risk to life
• CQC can support increasing capacity across the system, particularly in adult social care
• a focus on the urgent and emergency care system will help us understand the pressures, where local or national support is needed, and share good practice to drive improvement.

Much of their approach is unchanged and remains in line with the update from the Chief Inspectors on 10 December 2021.

This includes:

• achieving their ambition to complete 1,000 infection prevention and control (IPC) inspections in adult social care
• rapid response to requests to set up new Designated Settings
• activity to rate adult social care services that are registered and not yet rated
• inspections of adult social care providers currently rated as Requires Improvement to identify where improvement has taken place and re-rate where possible.

Alongside their risk-based activity, CQC will undertake ongoing monitoring of services. This helps to identify where CQC may need to take further action to ensure people are receiving safe care and offer support to providers. It also remains important that people share concerns or examples of good practice, CQC said.

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Source: CQC, 27 January 2022