WIREDGOV

On Thursday 29 November the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is launching a raft of new digital improvements including an email alert service, an information sharing CQC Widget and improved historical information on care homes.

The email alert service will allow people to sign up for the most up-to-date standards and quality reports about care providers across England. The alerts will provide direct, timely and reliable access to CQC activity about health and social care providers.

The alerts service will continue to be developed and expanded to enable all users (including Commissioners, MPs and Journalists) to tailor their subscription by all types of services (Hospitals, Care Homes, Dentists and Other Services) as well as by geographical area, local authority or constituency.

The CQC widget gives one click access to the latest CQC inspection reports and findings.  Organisations regulated by the CQC will be able to embed a summary of their inspection results on their own websites, and include a link to the full report on the CQC site.  The reports tell the public whether organisations providing health and social care services meet our national quality and safety standards.

Over 770 organisations have snapped up the widget so far after its soft launch on 8 October 2012and a number of major directory sites are using the widget including the Good Care Guide, Compare Care Homes, and Find Me Good Care which was recently launched by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE).

When providers and locations are no longer registered with the CQC, their profile pages on our website have historically been removed. This has meant inspection reports are no longer available for those services. But from Thursday CQC will start making these available to the public, allowing them to see the histories of care at a particular location. More than 8,000 location profiles and 2,500 inspection reports will become available again on the website.

The new service will allow people to find out about the history of care in an area as well as the services currently operating. These services include those where:

• The provider has voluntarily closed it – for example, a hospital relocated to a new site or a care home closed because it is no longer profitable.
• We have taken enforcement action to close it – for example, a clinic whose registration is cancelled after our inspectors found evidence of poor care or abuse.
• The legal entity providing the service has changed – for example, a dental surgery where a sole trader has been replaced by a partnership as the provider.
• A service has changed address – for example, a care home that moves to a new building around the corner to take advantage of better facilities.

Chair of the Care Quality Commission, Dame Jo Williams said: “These new digital services are an important step in making it as easy as possible for people to find the information they want. They bring valuable CQC information about the quality of services to a wider audience, helping individuals make informed choices about care.”

For press enquiries call the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917 232 143. For general enquiries call 03000 616161.

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. We make sure that care in hospitals, dental practices, ambulances, care homes, people’s own homes and elsewhere meets national standards of quality and safety – the standards anyone should expect whenever or wherever they receive care. We also protect the interests of vulnerable people, including those whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.

We register services if they meet national standards, we make unannounced inspections of services – both on a regular basis and in response to concerns – and we carry out investigations into why care fails to improve. We continually monitor information from our inspections, from information we collect nationally and locally, and from the public, local groups, care workers and whistleblowers. We put the views, experiences, health and wellbeing of people who use services at the centre of our work and we have a range of powers we can use to take action if people are getting poor care.