Mental health services to face surprise spot-checks after series of abuse scandals, watchdog warns

Unannounced and out-of-hours spot-checks on mental health services are set to ramp up following a string of abuse scandals, The Independent can reveal.

The Care Quality Commission’s new mental health chief Chris Dzikiti said he was “saddened” by “unacceptable” scandals in the last six months, warning the regulator “will use the powers [it has] to hold people to account.”

He said the organisation will be carrying out more unannounced inspections of providers, including inspections launched out of normal hours, with the aim to have the “majority” of spot-checks carried out this way.

In his first interview since joining the regulator in November Mr Dzikiti, who is mental health nurse by background, said: “I talk to chief execs of mental health services, I talk about [how] as a regulator, we will use the power we have, when [we] see poor practice, we will definitely hold people to account.

“In our inspection programmes, we are also increasing the unannounced inspections out of hours inspections, because we need to try and get really deep into the culture of mental health services, especially those areas where we think there’s a higher risk of poor practice.

“I will not rest until we get people safe.”

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Source: The Independent, 24 April 2023