Your opportunity to make a difference — why people get involved with CQC’s research.
In this blog, Director of Engagement, Chris Day, talks about the importance and value of involving a wide range of voices in our work.
As the independent regulator for health and social care in England, we register and inspect care homes and home care, hospitals, dental and GP practices, mental health services and other regulated health and care activities at over 30,000 locations nationally.
Despite, and perhaps because of our size, it’s vital to have conversations and connections with people who work in and use health and social care to help us improve how we work.
We know that, as providers, you’ll have seen significant changes over the past few years to the way you operate. We want to make sure we can give better support in a few key areas. These include how you share information with us, how we present information to you, and how, collectively, we help you drive improvement in your organisation and in the local system to improve how you meet the needs of people using your services.
With your help, we have a vision of a transformation for CQC that will adapt over time to improve every part of what we do.
As we make each change, it’s important to hear from a range of voices – from both providers and people who use services – to make sure our changes work well in practice.
To ensure we can hear your voice as a provider, we’ll continue to offer a range of ways for you to get involved. Here are some examples:
Co-production, expert advisory and steering groups
These events invite professionals from different areas of health and social care and people who use services to work with CQC colleagues to design and discuss the changes we’re making to how we work. These regular conversations and workshops enable us to develop and test ideas.
Speaking about why they decided to participate in these sessions, Brendan, who works for an independent healthcare provider said it was “to understand more about the new regulatory approach and how it will impact us.” Also “to influence the approach to ensure it is right for providers and the public. It has been positive to be involved. I appreciate CQC widening the opportunity to more providers.”.
One of the most beneficial aspects of these steering group sessions is the opportunity to break into smaller, facilitated groups. Alan, works in an NHS trust. He said that he had found breakout groups facilitated by CQC staff most valuable. “These have been good discussion forums and all participants from a range of providers have had the opportunity to feed into the product reviews, providing a wide range of perspectives from different types of service. The CQC staff have presented well thought-out development tools and have been receptive to feedback provided at the open forum sessions.”
Webinars
Webinars are our regular way of engaging with thousands of people at once. They’re a great way for us to share information directly with a huge number of providers, often talking about the output from co-production events. One staff member from an independent provider of health care and home care said they chose to attend the webinars to “attempt to be on the front foot of knowing about the changes”, but also commented that it’s important to remember that participants are dipping in and out as part of their day job.
User research sessions for our new digital platform
To support our transformation, we’re updating our technology to make it easier to interact with us online, replacing the old provider portal. As with any new IT platform, key to its success is a programme of rigorous testing with people who will be using it. We’ve invited people to participate in usability testing sessions for our new provider portal. Gareth, who works for an organisation providing short breaks and day support, said of his involvement. “I believe strongly in stakeholder engagement to support CQC in ensuring the development of the new provider portal meets the needs of all service providers. My opinion was sought on a number of topics regarding the new portal and I felt that these were listened to and taken on board. Although it may have been small, [I value] being able to have some input/influence in the development of the new portal.”
Another user research participant , working in a supported living service, said, “we’ve been using this [the portal] but there have been issues. I found it very informative and enjoyed giving feedback and input into ideas from the point of view of the organisation I work for.”
CQC colleagues who will be using the new platforms are also closely involved in the testing. Emma said, “With the amount of changes being made within the organisation, and the impact these have on colleagues, I believe it is vital to have people who use systems or who will be affected by the changes to be involved in testing and developing them. I felt listened to by the user researchers and I believe my feedback was taken on board.”
Getting involved
The changes we’re making are designed to make us a better organisation to work with and a better organisation at driving improvement. Your ongoing support to help drive our transformation is vital.
You can keep up to date with our plans and timelines on our website cqc.org.uk. Make sure you’re signed up to our bulletins to get the latest information about our plans.
We also host regular surveys and opportunities to feed back your ideas on CitizenLab, our digital engagement platform. You can also express your interest in joining the user research panel by emailing experience.research@cqc.org.uk. Sign up now to get involved.
Chris Day
Director of Engagement, CQC
