New regulator for health, mental health and adult social care

The new Care Quality Commission is launched, promising to put the public and users of services first.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) aims to:

• improve services across health and adult social care and act swiftly to remedy bad practice
• put people who use services first and champion their rights
• share our wealth of knowledge and expertise on health and social care services
• involve providers, commissioners and people who use services in the design and development of our work.

Speaking at the beginning of April to 200 people from across the worlds of health, mental health and adult social care at a reception to mark the launch of the Care Quality Commission, CQC Chairman Barbara Young said that the launch marks a new stage in the drive for quality and safety in health and adult social care.

"CQC will join up the regulation of health and adult social care across the public and independent sectors for the first time. The public wants good quality of care wherever it is provided and wants care that is joined up. Particularly as the population ages, the care people receive spans sectors and they should have assurance that, no matter where their care is delivered, the services are operating to the same essential common quality standards."

"We will put people's rights to good quality and safe care right at the heart of what we do. We will work hard to ensure that users of services and their carers and families are fully involved in shaping our work and the driving up of quality.

"Throughout our work, we will act with rigour, robustness and independence to safeguard the interests of the public.

"We'll be a modern, proportionate and responsive regulator. We will work with the providers and commissioners of services to encourage improvement. That doesn't mean we'll be an easy touch. We will have a range of tough new enforcement powers and we won't be afraid to use them when it is appropriate. But our first aim will be to prevent problems through encouraging improvement. We will act nimbly and flexibly to spot problems early and work with providers of services and their commissioners to tackle issues of quality early.

"Over the next three years we will bring a range of services, including primary care, GP and dental services in to a single registration system spanning both the health and adult social care system. We want to make sure that both the users and providers of services will be heavily involved in shaping and developing the new system."

Adult social care and private healthcare providers already have to be registered, but from the 1st April NHS organisations have to be registered for the first time to show that they are able to protect patients, staff and the public from healthcare associated infection. From 2010 registration will involve meeting a wider range of standards and the system will be common to health and adult social care providers.

For the first time CQC will be able to bring together information from the monitoring and inspection of all health and social care services to create a picture of the state of health and social care in England, thereby helping to spot quality issues in services and their commissioning, identify trends and contribute to national policy debates.

It will be able to join up its duty to monitor the way the Mental Health Act is used with its other functions. So CQC will not only look at whether patients rights are being upheld when they are subject to compulsory measures under the Act, but will check that a whole range of quality standards are being met by the services they are receiving. It can also use powers of enforcement to take decisive action where mental health services are failing people.

Speaking at the same event Cynthia Bower, Chief Executive of the CQC welcomed staff to the new organisation, most of whom have come from the predecessor commissions, "I am delighted to inherit such a talented group of people and am looking forward to working with them to build on the good work they have been doing. Our staff will be our strength and I am confident we have a great team in place to make us a first class regulator."

CQC is wasting no time in examining important issues across health and adult social care. It has already announced a programme of special reviews for the coming year. These reviews demonstrate its commitment to look across health and adult social care services in a joined up way and to focus on vulnerable people who may not have been well serviced in the past. The special reviews will include those that will examine:

• the healthcare needs of people in care homes
• the whole system of care for people who have a stroke and their carers
• meeting the physical health needs of people with mental health problems and learning disabilities in hospitals and residential homes
• health and social care for families with disabled children and young people.

In its first year CQC will also:

• continue with quality ratings of care homes and home care provision
• carry out an annual assessment of NHS organisations that provide services
• carry out assessments of commissioning - primary care trusts and local authority adult social services departments
• contribute to the Comprehensive Area Assessment process which will report on how well PCTs and councils are working together to commission services
• develop a new registration system for health and adult social care to be introduced from April 2010
• take action where the quality of services is inadequate.

The results of these assessments are going to be reported clearly, allowing the public to see how well their services are doing and giving them information to help them make choices about, for example, which care home to choose for a loved one or which hospital to go to for an operation.

Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson commented: "This heralds a new beginning with the Care Quality Commission. For the first time quality and accountability in both health and adult social care will be regulated under the same rules and the same high standards, with extra enforcement powers to further drive up quality. The Commission will be a regulator that can be responsive to the different pressures on the NHS across both sectors."

08.04.09

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