23.05.16
CQC pilots joined-up approach to health and social care inspection by place
A new CQC approach to inspection, designed to consider health and social care as a whole in an area, has been piloted in Salford and Tameside.
The project, Quality of Care in a Place, aims to consider whether local health and care services are working together to meet residents’ needs.
The CQC said it was testing the approach as a means of moving beyond rating providers, to enable it to assess quality and encourage improvement at a system level, increase transparency for local people, and respond to new models of care as they develop.
David Behan, CQC’s chief executive, said: “In these two reports we have attempted to answer the questions ‘If I live in Tameside or Salford what will be my experience of health and care services? If I have multiple needs are services joined up?’ CQC needs to look at the quality of care people receive across areas and between services. Having a better understanding of how different parts of the health and care system work together should also help drive improvement.
“By 2020, 50% of the population should be receiving care in a range of new ways and from organisations that bring different elements of care together. Quality of Care in a Place is one of a number of ways we have been looking at how we can assess the quality of care beyond individual providers.
“Together these projects are helping us to build our capability to inspect, report on and rate new models of care, such as vanguards, and the range of different services that people use. Our work is also designed to support areas to innovate and collaborate and make informed decisions about local services.”
In Salford, the CQC brought together inspection reports, the views of local people, and case studies of how services work together to evaluate the city’s services.
It concluded that Salford’s health and social care was good and outstanding overall, with strong leadership and a clear vision.
However, it identified problems meeting the high level of mental health need and delays in Care Act assessments and occupational therapy assessment in the community.
For Tameside, it took a ‘data only’ approach, putting together its own data as well as findings from Public Health England, the Health and Social Care Information Centre and NHS England.
The data does not present any conclusions about the overall quality of care in Tameside, but is intended to be used to allow local health and care commissioners and providers to see how different aspects of health and care are performing and how they compare nationally.
The CQC also carried out a review of North Lincolnshire services in February, based on a mix of data and interviews with stakeholders.
The CQC said it wanted data from the Quality of Care in a Place inspections to be used in new joined-up care schemes such as vanguard projects and sustainability and transformation areas in order to provide care that was more sustainable and responsive to local needs.
The CQC admitted in papers published before last week’s board meeting that there is a potentially high risk it will fail to reach its target of inspecting every healthcare provider if it faces ‘a change of external environment.’
Have you got a story to tell? Would you like to become an NHE columnist? If so, click here.