The Need for Flexible Regulation to Assess Quality

Care England, the largest representative body of independent adult social care providers, has today responded to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) consultation on changes for flexible regulation.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, says:

“It is disappointing that it took a pandemic to highlight the pitfalls associated with CQC’s regulatory model. Although we welcome the general direction of the consultation proposals, which aim to enable the CQC to assess and rate services more flexibly, we are concerned by the lack of clarity around what the proposals mean for adult social care providers. Providers need to be clear about the CQC’s regulatory framework and how to hold the CQC to account where necessary.”

The CQC wants to move away from using comprehensive, on-site inspection as the main way of updating ratings, instead using wider sources of evidence, tools, and techniques to assess quality. Broadly, this is something to be welcomed by providers.

COVID-19 has highlighted the problems associated with the adherence to the previous rigid regulatory model of assessing quality. Care England has heard on a consistent basis from its membership that over the course of the pandemic that they have not felt sufficiently supported, especially in the early months, by the regulator. The opinions of providers are a fundamental indication of the extent to which the system was not fit for purpose. CQC was in a unique position to help navigate the Covid-19 pandemic through clear messaging and oversight.

The CQC launched a formal consultation https://www.cqc.org.uk/get-involved/consultations/consultation-changes-flexible-regulation which proposes two significant changes for adult social care providers:

The CQC propose to assess quality and rate services by using a wider range of regulatory approaches which stretch beyond on-site or comprehensive inspections.
The CQC propose to move to a more flexible, risk-based approach for how often CQC assess and rate providers.
Martin Green continues:

“Service ratings are of fundamental importance to business continuity and have significant commercial implications. It is of critical importance that this new regulatory approach is informed by a fair and proportionate framework which gives providers the ability to speak up against inaccuracies and also to request timely reassessment”.