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The regulator of health and adult social care has issued draft guidance for consultation on how providers across England can make sure they are meeting the Government’s new requirement for them to prominently display their performance ratings from April.

This follows an amended regulation laid before Parliament recently (Wednesday 28 January) by the Department of Health that will require providers to display their Care Quality Commission (CQC) ratings at their registered locations and on their websites.

The Care Act 2014 places a duty on CQC to inspect the performance of health and adult social care services and to present these judgements as ratings.

CQC rates services as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate so that the public has clear information to help them make informed choices about their care.

CQC has been doing this for the NHS since last March, for adult social care since last October and for general practices since November.

CQC has now developed guidance setting out how providers can meet this new requirement and has launched a four-week consultation for providers, members of the public and others to share their comments.

At the same time, CQC is consulting on draft guidance for providers on some minor amendments carried over from the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009.

Anyone with an interest is invited to have their say before final guidance is published in March and Government’s new regulations begin in April.

Chief Executive at the Care Quality Commission, David Behan, said:

“Our role as the regulator is making sure people have access to health and care services that are safe, caring, effective, responsive and well-led – it’s what everyone should expect and deserves.

“Following an inspection we publish our report and rating on our website. In the future there is a new requirement for all providers to display their rating. This will provide even greater transparency in helping people to make more informed choices about their care, either for themselves or their loved ones.

“I hope as many as people as possible will take the time to read our proposals and tell us what they think.”

More information – and to provide feedback – on the display of ratings and other amended regulations is available here: http://www.cqc.org.uk/guidanceconsultation

The closing date for all comments is Wednesday 25 February.

Twitter: @CareQualityComm #tellCQC

Notes to editors

Ratings

As of Monday 26 January, CQC has published performance ratings for:

NHS

1 Outstanding
43 Good
69 Requires Improvement
7 Inadequate

Adult Social Care

7 Outstanding
471 Good
185 Requires Improvement
45 Inadequate

General Practices

6 Outstanding
113 Good
20 Requires Improvement
5 Inadequate

The ratings regime allows CQC to provide a clear diagnosis of any problems there are by inspecting services and judging against 5 key questions: Whether they are safe, caring, effective, responsive to people’s needs and well-led.

Regulations

At the same time CQC is consulting on how providers across England can make sure they meet the Government’s new requirement for them to prominently display performance ratings from April, CQC is also consulting on some specific regulations being brought over from our existing Guidance about compliance, Essential standards of quality and safety.

From 1 April 2015, the Guidance about compliance, Essential standards of quality and safety will be replaced by new guidance - CQC guidance for providers on regulations. CQC expects to publish this in February, alongside our enforcement policy, with a further update in March following this consultation.

As outlined in the consultation document, these regulations we are consulting on are

Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (part 3)

• Regulation 4: Requirements where the service provider is an individual or partnership
• Regulation 6:  Requirement where the service provider is a body other than a partnership
• Regulation 7: Requirements relating to registered managers
• Regulation 20A: Requirement as to display of performance assessments

Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009 (part 4)

• Regulation 12: Statement of purpose
• Regulation 13: Financial position
• Regulation 14: Notice of absence
• Regulation 15: Notice of changes
• Regulation 16: Notification of death of a person who uses services
• Regulation 17: Notification of death or unauthorised absence of a service user who is detained or liable to be detained under the Mental Health Act 1983
• Regulation 18: Notification of other incidents
• Regulation 19: Fees
• Regulation 20: Requirements relating to termination of pregnancies 

For media enquiries, call the CQC press office on 020 7448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917 232 143. For general enquiries, call 03000 61 61 61.

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

We monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find to help people choose care.