An update on the ‘CQC Way’
CQC’s Chief Executive, Sir Julian Hartley talks about the start of developing the ‘CQC Way’, how we’re co-designing this work and how it supports the urgent improvements we need to make.
I joined CQC because of my belief that effective regulation is at the heart of a health and social care system that delivers the outcomes people need. All of us need regulation that gives the public an up-to-date view of quality and supports providers and the system to improve.
But to do that well we need absolute clarity on CQC’s purpose, consensus around the values and behaviours you should expect from a regulator and the right principles that underpin a successful regulatory approach. In essence a new collective vision for what good quality regulation looks and feels like.
Over the last 2 weeks we’ve brought together 1,000s of colleagues, providers and stakeholders to start the work on agreeing what that vision should be and how we get from where we are now to where we need to be.
Thank you to everyone who’s got involved so far!
This is the start of a foundational piece of work that will run alongside immediate improvement actions we are taking. For now, we’re calling this work The CQC Way
Once we’ve reviewed all the feedback we’ve gathered through this process, we will use these views to set out a charter that describes how CQC will work to deliver its purpose and what you should expect as a colleague, provider, stakeholder, or member of the public. These expectations will be a public commitment to work better, more effectively and return to being a good regulator.
Working in partnership
This work can only be a success if it is genuinely co-designed with colleagues, providers and stakeholders having the opportunity to be part of this. I’m committed to ensuring everyone’s views and contributions counting.
By working this way, we will ensure that the output of this work reflects the needs of everyone involved in delivering good quality regulation.
As a start to this work, over the last 2 weeks, I and other senior leaders at CQC have been on the road leading events in Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol, and London that have involved colleagues at CQC, providers, organisations that represent the public and other stakeholders.
These sessions have been fantastic in helping me understand your hopes for good quality regulation, fears about not delivering that right now and what we need to do to improve.
I heard loud and clear that there is agreement that we all need credible and strong regulation, but currently that’s not we’re delivering.
From CQC colleagues I heard about the importance of having an open culture at work and the right tools so they can do their job well and deliver the impact that brought them to CQC.
From providers I heard how valuable regular and timely assessments are, how much they need the right relationship approach with CQC and how we need to make our assessment approach simpler and clearer.
But most powerfully, I also heard from people who use services about the positive impact good quality regulation can have on their lives, their experience of health and social care and outcomes they receive. It’s this impact on people that has always motivated me throughout my career, and I know that’s shared across everyone who works in health and social care.
Across all this engagement it was clear there was commitment to work together on a journey of returning to good quality regulation. Recognising where things have gone wrong but also working collaboratively to make the improvements, we all need.
Looking forward
Over the next 2 weeks we’ll be looking at all the feedback shared through these events, and feedback shared with us over the last 18 months to develop draft proposals for a new framework that sets out:
1. Why CQC exists:
Reconnecting to our core purpose of making sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encouraging care services to improve
2. What we aim to achieve:
Setting medium and long-term priorities for our assessment and improvement work, addressing immediate needs, while ensuring we deliver effective regulation in the long term
3. How we work:
Setting shared values, and clear behavioural expectations for how CQC colleagues work together and how CQC works with providers
We’ll then engage again on these draft proposals with our staff, people who use services, providers and other stakeholders, seeking feedback through an online engagement platform and through more face-to-face events.
This journey will continue to be something we take forward together and in partnership with the organisations we regulate and public we serve.
Look out for more information on how to get involved with this phase of engagement soon.
Immediate improvement actions
The work on the CQC Way will deliver the framework for delivering good quality regulation long term. But I also recognise the need for us to make immediate improvements now.
There are providers waiting for assessments or registrations to be completed, members of the public who need to know what the quality of care is like in their area and stakeholders who rely on our judgements.
So, we make sure we’re doing the right thing now, I’m committing us to making improvements in 4 areas we know are causing the most pain right now:
- Ensuring we can publish reports of assessments that have taken place, and providers have been waiting too long for
- Increasing the number of assessments, we are completing each month, so we give providers up to date ratings and ensure the public understand the quality of care in services in their area
- Clearing our registration backlog so new services can start delivering care and we support increased capacity in the system
- And making sure we’ve acted promptly on information of concern and notifications.
I know many of you will want to know when you can see improvements in each of these areas. I’m pleased to say that in the last few weeks we have seen the number of registrations waiting over 10 weeks come down, the number of assessments that providers have been waiting a significant time to publish reduce from around 500 to around 300 and initial steps taken to enable more assessments through a streamlined approach.
I hope to share more on all these areas soon but equally think it’s vital I don’t promise timescales that can’t be delivered. We’re rapidly mapping out when we will be able to address each of these areas and once we have that detail, I’ll share that with you.
Finally I want to recognise that your experience of regulation hasn’t been good enough for some time, I can’t promise that everything will be fixed immediately but I am committed to working with all of you on a journey of improvement that will return us to delivering a quality of regulation that we all recognise as good.
