The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has updated their assessment framework. Previously they used three separate assessment frameworks for hospitals, adult social care, and primary medical services. The new framework combines these into a single assessment process for all care services.
The new framework is built on 5 key questions, and a set of quality statements for each question. These 5 key questions are; is your service:
- Safe?
- Effective?
- Caring?
- Responsive?
- Well-led?
Each key question has quality statements against them and is broken down into ‘we statements’ which are written from the provider’s perspective to help them understand what is expected of them.
Here’s an example of some ‘we statements’ from each key area:
Safe: “We have a proactive and positive culture of safety based on openness and honesty, in which concerns about safety are listened to, safety events are investigated and reported thoroughly, and lessons are learned to continually identify and embed good practices.”
Effective: “We support people to manage their health and wellbeing so they can maximise their independence, choice and control. We support them to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.”
Caring: “We treat people as individuals and make sure their care, support and treatment meets their needs and preferences. We take account of their strengths, abilities, aspirations, culture and unique backgrounds and protected characteristics.”
Responsive: “We make it easy for people to share feedback and ideas or raise complaints about their care, treatment and support. We involve them in decisions about their care and tell them what’s changed as a result.”
Well-led: “We foster a positive culture where people feel that they can speak up and that their voice will be heard.”
As you can see, the ‘we statements’ are questions for service managers to ask themselves about their service. You can find all of these “we statements” on the CQC website https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/assessment/single-assessment-framework
What were previously the ‘Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs)’ are now the 5 key questions (and quality statements) above. CQC will collect evidence of these in a range of areas such as;
- Client’s experience of health and care services
- Staff feedback
- Partner feedback
- Observation
- Processes and procedures
- Outcomes
The reason for these changes in their assessment criteria and methodology is;
- To make things much simpler to focus on what really matters to people
- To reflect better on how care is delivered by different types of services as well as across a local area
- One framework that connects to CQC registration activity to assessments of quality
The changes can sound daunting, and there’s some jargon to get your head around. But the idea behind the changes is to make service managers’ lives easier when being assessed, and to provide more consistency from CQC when they are assessing services of all types, putting people’s experiences at the forefront of the assessments.
Still unsure about the new CQC Framework? Not to worry! We can support with mock CQC inspections and guidance to get your head around it all. Get in touch and book a free 15-minute consultation.
