WIREDGOV

We’re making good progress against the plan we set out in December 2022. However, this remains a complex transformation programme and a key part of our approach is about listening – this means we might need to adapt our plan along the way.

This update outlines the work we’ve been doing so far in 2023 and sets out what health and care providers and others can expect for the rest of the year.

What’s happening now

In March we shared an update on our regulatory priorities. We had previously adjusted our approach to support the system in dealing with winter pressures.

We continue to act in the best interests of people who use services.

As we move closer to implementing our new regulatory approach, we’ll explain clearly how we’ll start to use our new single assessment framework through our provider guidance. Our published ratings play an important role in health and social care and we want to carry on building people’s trust in them and in us. We will set out more about this in our next update

When adapting our plan for transforming our regulatory approach, we renewed our commitment to involving health and care service providers, the public and others in developing our work. Since our last update, we’ve been engaging extensively with these groups in a variety of areas. For example, what our new assessment reports will look and feel like, and how we implement a process to verify that those signing up to our new provider portal are who they say they are. We’ve engaged with over 1,000 stakeholders during this time.

Internally, we’ve taken the next steps in reorganising our operational teams as colleagues move into their new integrated assessment teams. We’re taking time to get this right, so colleagues will continue to use our current assessment frameworks and will spend this time training and familiarising themselves with our new approach to prepare for rollout later in the year. Over the coming months, our new operational teams will begin to reach out to providers and other local stakeholders. During this period there won’t be large-scale changes to existing relationships.

We’ve recently also provided updates on our work to begin assessment of local authorities and integrated care systems. This work is central to helping us understand more about what is happening across a local area and will provide independent assurance to the public of the quality of care in their area.

What will happen?

In summer we’ll start to roll out our new provider portal, notifying providers individually when they’re able to sign up. We’ll do this in stages and provide support and guidance. . In this initial period, it will be quicker to submit information such as statutory notifications to us as we move away from using email.

When we roll out our new assessment approach later in the year, providers will also be able to review our draft judgements through an improved process for checking the factual accuracy of draft reports.

We’ll work to improve how we use the information we get through the Give feedback on care service. In time, this work will be crucial in enabling us to properly close the feedback loop with the experiences we hear from people.

Throughout this period, we’ll review published evidence from all local authorities and integrated care systems across specific thematic areas, alongside the early piloting of our approach.

Later in 2023 we’ll gradually start to carry out assessments of providers in the new way. This means using our new assessment framework, powered by our integrated assessment teams and supported by our new technology.

At this stage, providers will also be able to apply to register with us and make ongoing changes to registration through the portal. By this point all our online interactions with providers will be on the portal.

To allow more time for testing, we’ve also taken the decision to move back the rollout of our improved enforcement processes.

Keeping you updated

These changes will take time and will continue into 2024. But we we’ll continue to keep everyone informed as we know that providers, local authorities, integrated care systems and others need time to prepare for the changes.

Over the coming months we’ll provide much more detail about how we’ll use our new assessment approach when we start to roll it out later in the year. We’ll give an update on what good looks like under our new assessment framework, the evidence we’ll prioritise and how providers will interact with our new operational teams.

We’ll also start to share case studies from the engagement work we’ve been doing on our provider portal.

Make sure you’re signed up to our bulletins to get the latest information about our plans.