CQC chief admits ‘we’ve lost your trust’ and announces more inspections

The Care Quality Commission’s new chief executive has admitted the regulator “got things wrong” during the rollout of its new inspection regime and announced an increase in the number of assessments it carries out.

The CQC announced a shake-up of its regulatory regime three years ago. It involved a move from a “set schedule of inspections to a more flexible, targeted approach”, called the “single assessment framework”, with greater reliance on data.

However, its rollout has been controversial with CQC’s own staff and providers flagging concerns about the new approach.

Now, Ms Terroni has said changes in how the regulator manages relationships has left many providers feeling “unsupported”, with wider technical issues preventing organisations from accessing information.

She wrote: ”I want to start with an apology. We’ve got things wrong in the implementation of our new regulatory approach. I know that the changes we’ve delivered so far are not what we promised. It’s made things more difficult than they should be. We’re not where we want to be, and we’re determined to put things right….

“Many of the issues we’re experiencing now were anticipated and flagged by providers and our own people. We didn’t listen properly or take on board these concerns, and that’s why we’re where we are now.

“Though there was significant engagement and co-production of the high-level elements of our approach, we didn’t follow that process into the detail of how we’ll assess providers. I know that, for some of you, we’ve lost your trust because of this. I’m sorry.”

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Source: HSJ, 15 July 2024