Prime Minister David Cameron has defended NHS reform plans. He said that the need for change was ‘unavoidable and urgent’. However, various NHS specialists have voiced a range of concerns about the government’s Health Bill outlining reforms to the NHS. In response to the proposed legislation many primary care trusts feel that Andrew Lansley’s changes …
The draft report and recommendations from the Commission on Improving Dignity in Care was published last week. It outlines ten key recommendations for hospitals and care homes to help them tackle the underlying causes of undignified care. The aim of the report is to examine how care for the elderly can be improved through increasing …
Recommendations from the Delivering Dignity Report Read More »
In the Sefton judgment last year, the Local Authority’s decision to freeze fees for residential care was quashed on the basis that it had not considered the actual cost of care when setting the usual price it would pay providers. That decision was the high point of the campaign by providers and representative bodies to …
Care Agenda: Price Bidding for Contracts – the New Battleground for Fair Fees Read More »
On 18 February 2012, an online database of almost 60,000 eldercare and childcare services in England was launched to considerable public fanfare. Known as the Good Care Guide it operates in a similar way to TripAdvisor, allowing families using childcare or adult care services to find and rate care providers. Three days into its launch …
Understandably, all the recent headlines about CQC have been around the resignation of CQC’s Chief Executive, Cynthia Bower, although she will not be departing until September 2012. Her resignation coincided with the publication of the Department’s Performance and Capability Review of CQC. While light on detail, it does give some interesting pointers to the likely …
The Department of Health’s Performance and Capability Review of CQC Read More »
On 15 February 2012, the CQC Board discussed the proposals for the reform of the CQC judgement framework and the enforcement policy following the recent consultation. Some of the major proposed changes are set out below. The end of Improvement actions One of the key proposals is to stop setting improvement actions given CQC’s admission …
Proposals for Reform of the CQC Compliance and Enforcement Model from 1 April 2012 Read More »
Monday 9.00am: a Fire Safety Officer appears and asks to see your fire safety records. Ten minutes later, a Contracts Officer arrives from the Local Authority asking to see care plans including Mental Capacity Assessments. After another quarter of an hour, two CQC Inspectors arrive with a Pharmacy Inspector. The Inspectors also want to look …
Care Talk: Duplication of Regulation – A Guide for Frustrated Providers Read More »
Provider Profiles were introduced on the CQC website without fanfare towards the end of last year. At first glance, it might appear beneficial that the Profiles can be easily understood, with a green tick denoting compliance, a grey cross non-compliance and a red cross, enforcement action. However, on careful examination, there are genuine concerns about …
The CQC Provider Profile – a fairer system than the old star ratings? Read More »
On Wednesday 25 January 2012, the Public Accounts Committee took evidence on the Care Quality Commission, in light of the critical National Audit Report on CQC published on 2 December 2012. Cynthia Bower, the CQC Chief Executive appeared before the Committee. It was a lively debate which one Committee member somewhat unsympathetically described as a …
Public Accounts Committee hearing on the Care Quality Commission Read More »
A West Berkshire company has been fined £14,000 and ordered to pay £30,000 costs after it was convicted of exposing social care workers to violence and aggression. The company, who provide services for people with learning disabilities, admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, in relation to their employees and agency workers. …
Care provider faces large fine after staff are exposed to violence and aggression Read More »
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