Every organisation offering health or social care services in the UK needs to be registered with the Care Quality Commission. This is because all services of this nature are regulated by the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and the Care Quality Commission Regulations 2009. All this legislation helps ensure the highest standards of care and safety are maintained.
Regular inspections are a feature of compliance with care standards. This means you can expect audits from the CQC to form an essential aspect of ongoing operations. But are you prepared for a surprise CQC inspection?
What are CQC inspections
There are two kinds of checks that CQC inspectors conduct on health and social care providers in the UK. These are comprehensive inspections and focused inspections.
Comprehensive inspections involve in-depth visits to your facility. CQC inspectors will be checking the full quality, safety and effectiveness of the care services you provide. In addition, they will check that you are responding to user needs and offering a service that is caring in nature. Some inspections will be surprise visits, but this depends on the nature of your business and size of your organisation.
Focused inspections are similar to comprehensive ones but tend to be smaller in scale. CQC focused inspections are often as a result of concerns that have been previously raised. These concerns would have been raised either in your last comprehensive inspection or via CQC monitoring.
Preparing for CQC visits
You can find out more about CQC inspections and what they are looking for on their website, or download their useful guide “Preparing for CQC Inspection“.
If you’ve been advised to expect a comprehensive CQC inspection, it’s natural to have concerns about aspects of your service.
One solution to consider is to book a mock CQC inspection beforehand. Care 4 Quality. offers announced or unannounced visits to your organisation. Our CQC experts will provide comprehensive feedback and support to help alleviate any worries you may have about your upcoming CQC inspection.
Get in touch with us to find out more about how our mock CQC inspection service can help you.
