NCF Policy Director, Liz Jones, and our new Policy, Research & Projects Officer, Nathan Jones, attended the monthly CQC Trade Association meeting on 11 November 2019.
Updates from the CQC
A reminder about new supporting information for inspectors and Mental Health Act reviewers help them better understand how to identify and respond to ‘closed cultures’ in services – (click here for more information)
The CQC say there are particular challenges in regulating services where there is a culture of concealment of abuse and human rights breaches. This supporting information will help their frontline staff to assess services where there may be a risk of abuse and abusive cultures. It will also help managers in CQC to support their frontline staff in this difficult task.
Purpose of the new information for inspectors:
- Helps inspectors and Mental Health Act Reviewers identify services where there may be a high inherent risk of a closed culture that might lead to abuse or breaches of human rights and lay outs how they should monitor these services
- Helps inspectors and Mental Health Act Reviewers identify warning signs that there may be a closed or punitive culture, or risk of such a culture developing and confirms that they will have a low threshold for carrying out an inspection where warning signs are developing in a service with a high inherent risk
- Sets out to inspectors and Mental Health Act reviewers how to use strengthened regulatory policy, methods and processes when there is a high inherent risk and/or warning signs. This includes gathering information from people who use services and their families early in the inspection planning, so their views can influence other evidence gathering, as well as a focus on inspection on the experience of people at the highest risk of human rights breaches.
Visiting rights in care homes – (click here for more about visiting rights in care homes)
The CQC has updated its information about visiting rights in care homes to highlight that residents also have consumer rights, which help to ensure that they are fairly treated and protected if things go wrong. The CQC is working with the CMA, trading standards and other partners to improve awareness of consumer rights in relation to social care.
No change to CQC Fees scheme in 2020/2021 (click here for more about the Fees scheme)
There will be no changes to the CQC fees schemes next year, unless a provider is changing their registration or size.
CQC Sexual Safety and sexuality in adult social care
The CQC cannot publish any new information in the pre-election period, so the publication of this report has been moved to 2020, exact date to be confirmed. The CQC have been working on this report for some time. We continue to emphasise the importance of balancing issues of sexual safety with those of sexual wellbeing, positive relationships and positive sexuality within the report and to offer further discussion about the messaging about and communication of the report when it is finally published.
Action: to revisit at the next meeting in December in more detail.
Consultation from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute about Care Home complaints
We heard from Adam Mortimer at the CTSI about a consultation they have launched on their latest guide on handling and responding to complaints in care homes.
Last year, they produced a series of three booklets for the business companion website to help care home owners and registered managers to follow the principals of consumer law that apply across the UK in the care home sector.
They have now drafted the next guide in this area that is designed to be an introduction and complimentary guide to the complaints landscape across the UK. This guide brings together the best practice advice from the CMA and existing guidance published in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as best practice advice on the principles that make a good complaint handling procedure.
They would like feedback on the draft guide, click here.
Click on the image below to view the slides from the meeting.
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