CQC New Approach to Assessment

Ownacarehome considers what the Single Assessment Framework will mean for Care Home Providers

CQC The New Approach

The CQC new assessment will apply across the board to care providers as well as local authorities and integrated care systems.

The CQC will commence its new assessment roll out from November 2023 commencing with providers in the South of England covering the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex and Wiltshire. 

Meanwhile the new online provider portal has been activated with a gradual roll out of providers able to submit notifications through the new portal.

The ratings regime, being outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate, remain together with the five key questions (safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led).

Under each key question sits a set of quality statements and these “describe what good care looks like and link to the regulations.” (CQC) They are expressed as “We Statements” showing “what is needed to deliver high-quality, person-centred care.”

Behind the quality statements sit six evidence categories:

• People’s experience of health care services
• Feedback from staff and leaders
• Feedback from partners
• Observations
• Policies, processes and procedures
• Outcomes for people

Ownacarehome followed up with Tina Stebbings from Fulcrum Care discussing what the CQC New Inspection Model will mean:

There will be emphasis on safety cultures that can learn and improve with systems in place that plan and deliver safe and person-centred care.

Currently, the CQC’s assessment of service is carried out via an inspection with the frequency of current CQC inspections often based on the previous rating of a service and/or CQC’s analysis of the current risk associated with a service.

While inspections will remain a crucial element of the CQC’s assessment, the new regulatory model states that the CQC will carry out a rolling assessment of quality and risk meaning that inspections will not be the only way that the CQC assesses service quality.

“The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated activities) Regulations 2014 and the Fundamental Standards will not be changing and the CQC has kept the Five Key Questions and Four Point Rating Scale.”

To summarise the CQC Single Assessment Framework will:

• Create an ongoing assessment of care services with a more fluid way of updating providers and the public about quality and risk
• There will be greater focus on data and intelligence
• In person inspections will continue but on the basis of risk
• Scores will be assigned to Evidence Categories
• The aim is to update ratings more frequently and these may change based on remote assessments
• The aim is to produce shorter and simpler reports, showing the most up to date assessment

Ownacarehome ask Tina: What about Dynamic re-rating?

Perhaps the biggest change is that the CQC has stated that whilst site visits will remain a vital tool to gather evidence and assess quality, evidence will be collected on an ongoing basis.

“Assessments will be ‘flexible and frequent’ not tied to set dates or driven by previous ratings” 

The CQC has said ratings can be updated at any time under the new framework with the result that ratings are more responsive to changes in risk and reflect the most up to date view of quality.

Tina hopes that the CQC’s new approach will offer providers more clarity on how inspectors have reached their ratings and the steps to be taken to improve and feels that dynamic re-rating will help those providers making real and continuous improvements who have been waiting a long time, sometimes years, for a new rating.

Additionally, the CQC aims to streamline and speed up their reporting processes to improve turnaround times.  Reports will be shorter and provide a more up to date view of the quality and safety of a service.  The publication of evidence scores in the future will benchmark how providers compare with others nationally.

We await to see how the roll out of the CQC Single Assessment Framework works in practice starting from November 2023.