CQC Inspection Changes Underway
28th March 2012
Next week, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is starting to introduce changes to the way it inspects providers of health and social care. The changes follow a consultation by CQC on how it regulates.
The changes, which will be phased in, mean that CQC will inspect most services more often. It will inspect most hospitals, care homes and domiciliary care providers at least once a year. It will inspect dental services at least once every two years.
The regulator will continue to re-inspect those services that fail to meet the government standards and will inspect any service at any time if there are concerns about poor care.
Most inspections will continue to be unannounced. To help do this, CQC is recruiting extra inspectors. This means that inspectors will be responsible for a smaller number of services than in the past. They will be able to spend more time getting to know the services, checking the information they have on each, and responding quickly to concerns about the quality of care. Inspectors will be able to spend more time inspecting and less time on paperwork.
CQC inspectors have continual oversight of all 16 government standards. During inspections for most types of service, they will focus on a minimum of five, one from each. Under the new system, inspections for most types of service will focus on a minimum of five, one from each of five ‘chapter headings’ that together cover all the standards. Which standards they inspect will be tailored to the type of care provided and the information CQC currently has about the service, including the concerns that people have told the CQC about. Inspectors will be able to focus their time and resources on services that are at higher risk of delivering poor care.
The CQC will judge providers either compliant or non-compliant with standards and will focus on non-compliance, but will include positive findings where they see them.
Experts in different aspects of care often join the CQC inspections, including members of the public who have experience of care. The CQC will be making more use of experts in the future.
Article first published on http://www.cqc.org.uk/
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Which? Report on Home Care Standards: Response from Citation MD, Lindsay Hill
20th March 2012
“Everybody will quite rightly be very concerned about some of the findings of this report. It highlights among other care related issues, the importance of health & safety compliance, which Citation and the English Community Care Association (ECCA) have been pioneering for years.
Anyone who has experienced a loved one being in need of home care will appreciate the reassurance of knowing they are receiving the standard of care they expect and deserve – and the frustration you experience if ever that isn’t the case.
As ECCA’s official compliance partner, Citation shares health & safety best practice with care providers all over the UK, making sure they are kept up to date with changes in compliance requirements.
No other compliance provider has been endorsed in this way – such is the quality of our service in the care sector, and the subsequent standards to which our care clients become compliant in health & safety.”That’s why ECCA will also be launching ECCA Compliance Solutions later this month. This new ECCA benefit will give thousands of ECCA members improved access to Citation’s unparalleled Health & Safety and Employment Law compliance expertise.”
Lindsay Hill
Managing Director, Citation Plc.
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RIDDOR changes
19th March 2012
With effect from the 6 April 2012, subject to Parliamentary approval, the current RIDDOR over-three-day reporting requirement, for employees injured at work, will change to over-seven-days.
From this date employers will only need to report injuries that lead to an employee being absent from work, or unable to undertake their normal workplace duties, for more than seven consecutive days as the result of an accident at work.
The day of the accident is not counted towards making up the seven days but weekends and rest days DO count.
This change should also ensure that someone who has sustained a reportable injury has had a professional medical assessment, as the reporting threshold now aligns with the requirement for employers to obtain a fit note from a GP for sickness absence of over seven days.
In addition, there is an increase in the number of days by which the RIDDOR report is to be made to the Incident Contact Centre, from 10 days to 15 days of the accident occurring. Citation advise that records of all workplace injuries, to employees, including those that do not result in any absence from work, should still be recorded in the accident book.
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