Last year we saw the promise of a new Mental Health Act in the Queen’s Speech and the prime minister announcing an independent review into the Mental Health Act 1983. The review has been set up to study “how the legislation in the Mental Health Act 1983 is used and how practice can improve”. The …
HSJ Channel – Reform or a new mental health act? Read More »
In its strategy for 2016/2021 CQC undertook to continue to use the full range of its enforcement powers, such as restrictions or closure of services, fixed penalty notices or prosecution where they find poor care below the Fundamental Standards. Its business plan for 2017/2018 identified “the proportion of newly registered providers where we take a …
CQC and the imposition of conditions of registration – Caring Times – January 2018 Read More »
On 29 November 2017, CQC published ‘Substance misuse services: The quality and safety of residential detoxification’, a briefing on the 2016/ 2017 inspection cycle. The document, which is necessary reading for all within the sector, is significant for its almost exclusively negative tone. The 9 page document contains no reference to the hard work of …
On 1 November 2017 CQC implemented its new inspection guidance following on from the latest consultation on its next phase of regulation. The release of the new guidance supersedes the previous Provider Handbooks and instead CQC has implemented more concentrated guidance aimed at each sector it regulates. The guidance sets out how CQC will regulate …
New provider guidance on CQC inspection now in force – Care Talk Magazine Read More »
As most people in the sector know, HMRC has been seeking to force care homes to make back-payments to sleep-in workers; those who have been paid a flat rate for night shifts rather than the hourly National Minimum Wage. This followed two Employment Appeal Tribunal cases in 2016 (Focus Care Agency Ltd v Roberts and …
Paying sleep-in staff – HMRC’s Social Care Compliance Scheme – Care Home Professional Read More »
CQC’s function is to inspect health and social care settings, to encourage improvement and take action where failings have been identified. The size of the task that they undertake is large and progress as against its function is predicated on the ability to objectively assess each provider on their merits or otherwise. The report conducted …
Inspection of CQC finds room for improvement – Care Talk Magazine Read More »
Our service is undergoing many changes after being recommissioned and we haven’t enough hours in the day. We are very short staffed and a CQC inspection is the last thing we need – we haven’t even time to complete the paperwork. Are we legally obliged to comply with the CQC’s timescale? The short answer is …
How do I manage the relative from hell? You’ve all had one! Turns up at antisocial hours! Interferes in care; upsets the staff; makes constant complaints without basis; instructs care changes against professional advice. These are difficult problems and need firm and fair handling. Make sure you document any event- facts, times and dates (use …
Ask the Expert – Care Home Professional Magazine Read More »
Between 1995 and 1997 I was engaged in working on 2 hospital PFI schemes. Both went on to complete – one harshly held back by the purdah period that preceded Tony Blair’s first Labour administration. In a sense this was a tall order, an initiative that linked Private Finance with Public Health (the NHS) was …
Even the closest of observers of CQC might have missed its recent response to “Our next phase of regulation: consultation 2” where it sets out its intentions for regulating adult social care services. This response serves as a precursor to how it will regulate and inspect providers in the near future. CQC intends to change …
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