The CQC’s New Strategy – Safety through Learning
23 June 2021
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Recently, the CQC released ambitions as part of their new strategy. Within this, there are 4 themes outlined:
- People and communities
- Smarter regulation
- Safety through learning
- Accelerating improvement
We’ve already covered people and communities and smarter regulation. In this blog, we’ll be looking closely at safety through learning.
What ambitions lie under the safety through learning theme?
The CQC want all services to have stronger safety and learning cultures. Safety is often the poorest performing area that they see in services.
The importance of culture
Safety must be a priority for all, and the culture needs to compliment this. The CQC plans to work with others to establish a definition and language about safety. Along with this will be a better understanding of risk.
A culture of learning will be implemented which the CQC will demonstrate in their relationships with providers and in their work. Staff should feel confident that they are listened to, and any concerns are rapidly acted upon.
Building expertise
With knowledge comes assurance that the level of expertise in an organisation is suitable. The CQC will look at how services assure themselves they have the right knowledge, and how they are investing in improving safety.
Involving everybody
People should be involved in their own safety throughout their health and care journey. The CQC will check that services take into account people’s rights and their unique perspectives of what matters to them in the way they choose to live their lives and manage risk.
Regulating safety
Some of the biggest safety risks are when people struggle to get the right care, when they’re transitioned between services, or after they’re discharged. Some services will have larger safety risks than others.
Where there’s a bigger risk of a poor culture, the CQC will focus on this type of care setting. They will ensure data gathering is consistent across sectors. If there are concerns with a service, it will be shown what action to take to learn and improve.
If improvement in a service is taking too long, the CQC will use their powers to act. Any learning will be shared through themes, trends and best practice in order to help services and local systems improve their safety.
Consistent oversight and support
To help services build strong safety cultures, they need to have consistent support. The CQC is planning to work with others to develop solutions and ensure all services have the support and leadership they need. They’ll use their insight and independent voice to promote a national conversation on safety across health and care sectors and systems. This should drive improvements in safety cultures and reduce harm.
How does Radar Healthcare support these ambitions?
Our ambitions align with the CQC – we want to make healthcare safer. For us, it’s through our risk, quality and compliance management software. Our product compliments the CQC’s new strategy in many ways.
Encourage an open culture and shared learning – Radar Healthcare enables easier communication between staff through features like automatic notifications when anything needs to be seen or actioned. This means nothing is missed and safer care is offered.
Workforces have appropriate knowledge – our software’s workforce compliance module ensures that your staff have the expertise required to provide safe care.
Involve everyone in their care journey – staff can easily and quickly log feedback from service users, family and advocates onto Radar Healthcare. Because our software can be used on most devices, it can be logged there and then if appropriate. This isn’t where it stops though – our software is built around improving care. That’s why it will then automatically notify and send actions to the relevant staff in the service to ensure that the complaint or compliment is acted upon.
Joining up services – we know how important it is that the communication and collaboration between services is good to enable a smooth transition of patients. That’s why Radar Healthcare is interoperable with many other systems you may already have.