Providers may feel that they have nowhere to turn to seek justice when aggrieved by Care Quality Commission (“CQC”) decisions. There is a legal mechanism in place where Providers can challenge the decisions of the CQC, by issuing judicial review proceedings. In recent years, providers have increasingly sought to challenge the decisions of public bodies, …
Is Judicial Review Available To Challenge CQC Decisions? Read More »
Providers are anticipating the changes to the CQC’s regulatory approach and how they will impact on their businesses. The CQC is drip feeding us with information and it can be hard to see how everything fits together. The aim of this article is to bring you up-to date on the information that has been publicised …
The CQC’s New Regulatory Regime – What We Know And Don’t Know Read More »
The 23 June was World Whistle-blower’s day, so it seemed timely to reflect on the subject, in particular a reminder of the law, updates to relevant guidance, the CQC’s approach to whistleblowing and best practice for providers. Law Whistleblowing legislation was implemented 25 years ago, through the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (“PIDA”) being incorporated …
The Joint Committee on Human Rights is “deeply concerned” about the delay in the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) which are due to replace the existing Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. LPS was originally planned to be rolled out in April 2022. However, on 5 April 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care …
If you are faced with a CQC criminal investigation into you or your service it is vital that you take prompt action. The CQC is becoming heavier handed in the fines that it dishes out to providers. Furthermore, the fact that some offences are punishable by imprisonment and that criminal enforcement action is likely to …
Skills for Care in partnership with The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and The Outstanding Society has produced a ‘Good and Outstanding (GO)’ online toolkit to support adult social care services to prepare for Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspections. As the CQC will be introducing …
Providers often find it difficult to shake off a poor CQC rating. Once the CQC has downgraded a service’s rating it often takes more than one inspection for the rating to be upgraded. In this article I explore the difficulties providers face to get the CQC to re-inspect and re-rate their service, in light of …
The CQC is working to fulfil its strategy that was launched last year. Under the new strategy the regulator plans to continually monitor practices and also shorten inspection reports. So what does this all mean for practices? What to expect and when The CQC’s current strategy sets out its aims, aspirations and outcomes from 2021 …
Understanding the CQC’s strategy and regulatory approach Read More »
At Ridouts we are frequently seeing that the CQC is automatically adopting Notices of Proposal, seemingly ignoring, or not testing the validity of, the representations submitted by Providers. In some cases the CQC is sending out Notices of Decision months after the Notice of Proposal was issued and therefore months and months, in some cases …
Are Your Representations Against CQC Notices of Proposal Being Ignored? Read More »
Let’s set the scene, Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment (VCOD) in care homes came into force on 11 November 2021 and was in the process of being applied to health and wider social care settings on 1 April 2022. Then on 31 January 2022, only approximately two months after VCOD became mandatory in care …
The End of Vaccination as a Condition of Deployment Read More »
Ridouts is a team of specialist health and social care lawyers, providing dedicated legal advice for care homes, GP practices, children’s homes, dental practices, domiciliary and home care agencies, supported and independent living services and both private and NHS hospitals.
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