News
Registration with the Care Quality Commission
24th May 2010
Are you a Voluntary Sector provider of residential home care, nursing care or a home care agency for adults?
Are you thinking of providing the above services?
If the answer is yes then you need to be registered with the Care Quality Commission by 1st October 2010
Go to www.cqc.org.uk for further information or contact Joanne Kelsall at Doncaster CVS on 01032 343300 x246 or jkelsall@doncastercvs.org.uk if you need advice support and training.
From 1 October 2010, a new registration system is being introduced for adult social care providers under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. All adult social care providers that provide regulated activities- this includes
• Personal care
• Nursing care
• Accommodation with nursing or personal care
• Accommodation for persons who require treatment for substance misuse
Must be registered with The Care Quality Commission (CQC) in accordance with the new regulations.
The CQC is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England. They also protect the interests of people detained under the Mental Health Act.
They promote the rights and interests of people who use services and have a wide range of enforcement powers to take action on their behalf if services are failing.
The aim is to make sure better care is provided for everyone, whether that's in hospital, in care homes or anywhere else that care is provided.
What is registration?
Registration means that all health and adult social care providers will be required to be registered with CQC if they provide regulated activities.
Registration isn't just about the initial application for registration. CQC will:
• continuously monitor compliance with essential standards as part of a new more dynamic, responsive and robust system of regulation
• seek information from patients and public representative groups, and from organisations such as other regulators and the National Patient Safety Agency.
If CQC has concerns that a provider is not meeting essential standards of quality and safety, they will act quickly, working closely with commissioners and others, and using new enforcement powers if necessary.
Why is it happening?
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 introduced a new, single registration system that applies to both health and adult social care.
The new regulations are set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2009 and the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. When the regulations come into force, they will replace:
• National Minimum Standards;
• Standards for Better Health.
How will the new registration system improve health and adult social care?
• People can expect services to meet essential standards of quality and safety that respect their dignity and protect their rights, wherever care is provided - in someone's home, in a community setting, in a hospital; however it is funded (private or public); and whether it is acute care or longer residential care - it will have a single set of standards of quality and safety.
• A single set of standards will make it easier for one provider to be compared to another and for providers to work together.
• It marks a change from regulation primarily based on systems and processes to regulation primarily based on outcomes - the experiences people have as a result of the care they receive.
• The CQC will continuously monitor compliance with essential standards as part of a more dynamic, responsive, robust system of regulation accompanied by new enforcement powers.
• The CQC will make better use of the information they have about providers, including constantly updated information from providers, people who use services, organisations and other regulators.
• The CQC will have short, focused unannounced site visits, with direct observation of care, rather than set piece inspections that require a great deal of preparation.
Further information can be obtained from the CQC website www.cqc.org.uk
