The long-awaited Penny Dash Report – “Review into the operational effectiveness of the Care Quality Commission (“CQC”) – was published on 15 October 2024 and has addressed the many issues the CQC are currently facing. The report aimed to examine the CQC’s recent shortfalls and the suitability of the Single Assessment Framework (“SAF”), which has struggled to reach the CQC’s expectations since its introduction in November 2023.
The report found significant failings across the internal workings of the CQC, which it summarised into ten conclusions. These ranged from highlighting poor operational performance on the part of the CQC, to the CQC’s lost credibility in the Health and Social Care sector and concerns around the Single Assessment Framework.
The report followed these findings with seven recommendations to improve areas of concern:
- Improving operational performance, the provider portal and reports’ quality
- Rebuild expertise within teams and improve relationships with providers
- Better description of the SAF and focus on all key questions
- Clarify how ratings are calculated
- Continue to improve local authority assessments
- Pause the roll-out of integrated care system assessments
- Strengthen sponsorship relationship.
The report goes on to suggest how these can be achieved with action from the CQC. The CQC have responded to the report and taken accountability for their shortcomings. They have already committed to improving several areas focused on in the report, including restructuring their leadership roles, amending quality statements in the SAF, fixing the provider portal and determining what ‘good’ looks like.
The report and the response from the CQC can be a source of encouragement that the CQC will begin to resolve its internal issues and inspire change.
For more information, please contact Caroline Barker, Legal Director in our Healthcare Regulatory team at HCR Law.
02074 005 020 07464 307 644 cbarker@hcrlaw.com
@HCRLaw
hcrlaw.com
Image depicts, Caroline Barker, Legal Director in our Healthcare Regulatory team at HCR Law