Unpacking the CQC: How will the new CQC strategy bring positive change to your care organisation?

2023 is a big year for the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Towards the end of 2022, the CQC announced its plans to adapt its strategy to be more people-focused and began rolling out the new assessment framework throughout several organisations across the country. Fast forward to the present day and the new approach is fully underway, but how can you and your teams utilise the new framework to drive positive change? 

 Let’s start unpacking the CQC together and take a look at the plans, offer some best practices, and guidance from industry leaders to help you fully understand the framework and scope of opportunities, and, of course, be inspection-ready!  

What’s changing in the CQC Strategy and Framework and why?  

Although the way CQC regulators assess and work alongside organisations has changed, the CQC’s primary purpose, values, and roles will not. The CQC still aims to: “make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.” 

The pandemic highlighted the real need for a more flexible and reactive model. Therefore, the new model aims to reflect this by applying a single assessment framework that connects registration activity to assessments. It sets out to be simpler and easier to complete, to allow more time to focus on people, and better reflect real-life needs and experiences, whilst tackling some of the current challenges faced in health and social care. 

In summary, what will the new single assessment framework look like?  

• Moving away from multiple assessments to one single assessment framework to reduce duplication and simplify the process of collecting evidence.  
• The quality ratings and the five key questions will remain central to the approach (e.g. “Is your service safe, effective, responsive, well-led, and caring?”).  
• Key Lines of Enquiries (KLOEs) will be replaced with Quality Statements (or ‘we statements’) to focus on specific topic areas within each key question.  
• To coincide with a more people-focused approach, there will be six new evidence categories; people’s experiences, feedback from staff and leaders, observations of care, feedback from partners, processes, and outcomes of care.  

For top tips on the successful implementation of the new CQC strategy see our What The HealthTech? ‘Cracking the CQC’ podcast episode, featuring CQC–expert and HC-One’s Antony Hall. 

Listen here

What are the CQC’s plans for 2023? 

The CQC have decided to start on internal changes first, to reduce pressure and the number of changes for services.  

From Spring 2023, the CQC has set out to focus primarily on making sure that the right technology is in place to be able to fulfil their roles efficiently. This will be tested with providers to reduce issues ready for the launch.  

Towards Summer 2023, a new online provider portal that lets providers submit and access statutory notifications and make changes to details quickly and easily will launch. This new online initiative will improve communication between regulator and provider, reduce admin time, and provide better oversight of ongoing and historical assessments. Again, this will be introduced in stages with relevant support and guidance.  

By the end of 2023, the new assessments and assessment framework will be used to regulate services across the sectors.    

The time to make a change is now. Don’t leave anything till the last minute. Get prepared and start thinking about your new strategy. Plan and implement small changes across your organisation now to place yourself in a stronger position by the end of 2023 and ease pressures and stress on your workforce in the lead up. 

If you need additional insight and support, subscribe to the CQC’s e-bulletin to stay updated on upcoming changes here. Or get in touch with our expert team to see how our CQC Management Software can guide you through all types of risk, quality, and compliance processes.

Be inspection-ready with the right CQC management software 

The key to being inspection-ready is preparation and having the right tools to support you. Inspections can be daunting and stressful, but with the right processes and technology in place, they don’t have to be.  

First and foremost, you and your teams need to understand what it is the CQC expects from you to then define how you evidence this in practice. Digital solutions, like CQC management software, can be an easy way to help collate, document, and organise evidence.  

Radar Healthcare’s trusted risk, quality, and compliance software has been designed alongside health and social care professionals to not only create safer outcomes but support organisations to always be inspection ready.  

Our all-in-one solution equips you are your teams with everything you need to evidence and provide safe care at a click of a button. Find everything from audit management and integrated action and improvement plans to incident and event management and more for complete oversight of all processes and communications.  

Many of our partners are already reaping the benefits of using Radar Healthcare. For more information about how our software and service can help your organisation, please speak to our expert team today!