Update based on CQC and NHS publications
As of January 2024
CQC continue to roll out their new framework to assess providers region by region.
See Introducing new approach to keep up to date with CQC’s rollout plans.
See Our
new assessment approach for details of the inspection process quality statement etc.
The CQC early adopter providers told CQC that they felt there was good communication and a collaborative approach.
CQC are acting on the feedback from providers and will continue to do this throughout the rollout.
Registering a new activity with CQC
Registration is a crucial step for the provider journey with CQC. It helps CQC to recognise and support services that provide good care and to help reduce the number of services that go on to deliver poor care. It is the first time we CQC will assess the quality of a services using the new assessment framework.
New providers applying to register with CQC will be assessed using questions aligned to the 34 quality statements under the new assessment framework. They will be able to do many things easily through the new portal or through web forms.
From 27 February, CQC will use their new assessment framework for all registration activity. This applies to both new registrations and changes to registrations for existing providers. CQC will update guidance on our website about registration processes.
CQC’s digital offer for providers
The new digital services make it easier for providers to share information with CQC and validate the factual accuracy of reports before CQC publish. The benefits for providers include:
- Clearer online forms for: general enquiries, mental health complaints, requests for a second opinion appointed doctor (SOAD) and cancelling a registration.
- Email and smart link: submit evidence for factual accuracy checks and any enforcement activity.
- New provider portal: submit some notifications and some registration activity.
CQC will share more detail about each of these soon.
As CQC roll out our new provider portal, they will no longer use the existing portal. From 27 February, providers will not be able to make notifications or applications on the existing portal. They can still access historic data until the end of March 2024.
CQC are inviting providers directly to join the new portal, starting with those that are using the current portal. From the end of February, all providers will be able to join the portal and register.
Please ensure all contact details you have shared with CQC are correct to ensure you will be notified.
The process for completing a provider information request is not changing at present.
What’s different
CQC have already confirmed that their quality ratings and five key questions will stay central to their approach. But they are replacing their existing key lines of enquiry (KLOEs) and prompts with new ‘quality statements’. These will reduce the duplication that’s in the four current separate assessment frameworks to allow CQC to focus on specific topic areas under each key question and will link to the relevant regulations to make it easier for providers.
CQC call the quality statements ‘we statements’ as they’re written from a provider’s perspective to help them understand what we expect of them. They draw on previous work developed with Think Local Act Personal (TLAP), National Voices and the Coalition for Collaborative Care on Making it Real. CQC wanted to maintain that ethos when developing our assessment framework.
Importantly, CQC will base their assessments of quality in all types of services, and at all levels, on this single assessment framework. For local authorities and integrated care systems, CQC will use a subset of the quality statements.
To make CQC judgements more structured and consistent, CQC have also developed six categories for the evidence they will collect:
- people’s experiences
- feedback from staff and leaders
- observations of care
- feedback from partners
- processes
- outcomes of care.
CQC want to be clearer with providers and the public about how they use the information they have about care in a service or local area. So, for each quality statement CQC will state which evidence they will always need to collect and look at. This will vary depending on the type of service. For example, the evidence CQC can collect for GP practices will be different to what will be available when assessing a home care service. It will also depend on the level at which CQC are assessing. For example, the evidence they have when a new service is registering for the first time will be different from a service that has been operating for a while.
To fulfil the ambitions in their strategy, the assessment framework emphasises the need to create cultures that learn and improve, and we set expectations for how services and providers need to work together, and within systems, to plan and deliver safe, person-centred care.
