The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is taking swift action to tackle their backlog of assessments. They aim to enhance their assessment methodology to promote more effective quality assurance systems, and these improvements will be implemented immediately.
The regulator views these changes as a significant advancement, enabling them to conduct more assessments at an accelerated pace. It is expected that this progress allows for a better reflection of quality across health and social care service.
Reasons for change
The current scoring approach for assessments is excessively time-consuming, preventing the CQC from completing evaluations promptly. This delay results in an insufficient number of assessments, hindering the ability to provide an accurate and current view of quality for both the public and service providers.
After engaging with providers throughout the industry, the CQC has acknowledged that the current scoring model is overly complex and difficult to understand.
What’s changing?
These are interim changes that will be reviewed in early 2025.
From 2nd December 2024, CQC are rolling out some key changes to their assessment approach.
Scoring and reporting for provider assessments will shift from the evidence category level to the quality statement level for assessments initiated after the specified date. This change aims to streamline the evaluation process and enhance clarity in reporting
CQC will continue to utilise the evidence categories to inform their assessments and to formulate judgments regarding individual quality statements. Their goal remains to implement regulation that is guided by people’s experiences with care
CQC is set to enhance their guidance, offering additional insights into the implications of this change for their assessments of providers, although this change does not apply to our assessments of local authorities
Upcoming modifications will be made to the internal technology systems utilised for conducting assessments. While these changes will not directly affect the public or service providers, they will enable CQC staff to perform assessments more efficiently and at an accelerated pace
Changes to reports
Starting from 2nd December 2024, there will be significant changes to both draft and final reports stemming from the assessments. These reports will no longer display scores at the evidence category level, instead, they will solely present scores for quality statements.
Looking forward
In addition to the immediate changes, the CQC is working on further enhancements to their operations, set for early 2025. These improvements will include:
Clearer descriptions of the quality criteria they assess across each of the four ratings
A new guidance handbook tailored for service providers
Methods to generate accurate ratings based on a select number of quality statements
Discontinuation of the current ratings system for generating new scores
Enhanced utilisation of professional judgment in the rating process
CQC plans to hold comprehensive discussions with the public and service providers over the next three months. The implementation of any changes will occur only after this consultation is completed, which is set to conclude in 2025.
Impact on service providers
We are finally witnessing progress from CQC as it gives providers much-needed clarity on how the single assessment process will be improved. After what has felt like a sluggish and long period marked by a lack of inspections, we anticipate a gradual and steady transition to these new operational methods.
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