2018 has seen substantial reform and parliamentary time for the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLs) legislation, much to the surprise of people who thought this would not be the case. But these developments have not come without opposition. In July we saw the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill introduced. This bill abolished the Deprivation of Liberty […]

CQC’s chief executive, Ian Trenholm announced his intention to bring more prosecutions of health and social care providers for breaches of the fundamental standards.  The numbers mooted at the time of that interview in early November 2018 were interpreted by some as alarming and certainly headline grabbing within the sector:  Potential prosecutions of 161 adult […]

The CQC has had a little shake up at the top recently with Sir David Behan, CQC’s Chief executive stepping down and Ian Trenholm replacing his place. Mr Trenholm has previously been chief executive of NHS Blood and Transport since 2014 and had started his career in the police service. During a recent interview, Mr […]

CQC now has the power to rate independent standalone substance misuse services and is currently rolling out its first wave of comprehensive inspections to establish a ratings baseline for future inspections.  This is the first time such services are being rated by CQC.  Adverse ratings can have a negative impact on the financial and operational […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY As a leading health and social care legal practice we recommend the following five fundamental changes to the health and social care system in England. The sector is not lacking ideas and recommendations but these need to be considered urgently by Government and policy makers. Now is the time to re-appraise some basic […]

Promoting and safeguarding a person’s autonomy is a fundamental right, which is entrenched in national/international legal systems. Therefore, to infringe on such rights it is imperative that great consideration and thought is given to developing legislation which protect such rights. The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill (“Proposed Bill”), will replace the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (“DoLS”) in […]

Last month the Kings Fund and Alliance Manchester Business School (AMBS) published a report analysing the effectiveness of the CQC’s approach to inspecting and rating health and social care providers.  The report is titled ‘Impact of the Care Quality Commission on provider performance – Room for improvement?’. While it noted that the current CQC inspection […]

CQC inspections have, for years, been considered a “snap-shot” of a home/location on the day of the inspection.  CQC rock up, take a view of what they find, and then write a report and make a judgment on an appropriate rating. When challenging inspection report findings and ratings, sometimes our clients will provide us with evidence […]

On 24 August 2018 the HSJ wrote: The care quality watchdog has won an appeal to stop a private care provider increasing the number of beds for people with learning disabilities. The tribunal ruling has sparked fears that investors will not want to expand or set up units for fear of them being refused registration […]