Be prepared! A surprise Care Quality Commission inspection may be on its way

CQC has announced that it will be conducting 250 unannounced inspections on homecare services over the next three months as part of a thematic review of the sector. While this will lead to a national report on homecare, each service that is inspected will be issued with an individual report. Those providers who are deemed to be failing will almost certainly be the subject of adverse press releases from CQC.

In this article, we offer providers some practical advice in dealing with inspections as well as the inspection reports that then follow.

The inspection itself

At the beginning of the inspection, CQC inspectors should explain the areas they intend to look at and the tools they will be using to gather evidence. This will be particularly important given that CQC has developed a new inspection process for homecare services. You can expect CQC to focus on a small number of outcomes.

These are likely to include:

• Outcome 1 – respecting and involving people who use services

• Outcome 2 – consent to care and treatment

• Outcome 4 – care and welfare of people who use services

• Outcome 7 – safeguarding people who use services from abuse

• Outcome 14 – supporting workers

• Outcome 16 – assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision

CQC inspectors, however, may look at other outcomes and you should be prepared to demonstrate compliance with all the essential standards.

See attached pdf for complete article.