For many healthcare practices, the regular Care Quality Commission assessment can be fraught with stress – and some say they are feeling concerned about upcoming changes.

The good news is that if you’re a Bison Assist customer, our expert risk assessors stay completely up to date to take away the strain of staying compliant in your practice.

So here’s our easy-to-understand Q&A guide to what’s going on at the CQC, and how to make sure your practice not only complies with all regulations, but keeps your staff, patients, customers and visitors safe.

What’s happening at the CQC?

The regulator is changing the way it assesses health and social care services, with a move away from the previous single assessment framework covering every type of service. The intention is to make the assessment process more appropriate to the very different ways these services operate.

The CQC has been carrying out pilot assessments alongside existing inspections, and is gathering feedback for a final evaluation in November.

What are the new frameworks?

They’re moving away from one-size-fits-all to four sector-specific frameworks:

• adult social care
• mental health services
• primary care and community services
• hospitals, including secondary and specialist care.

What stays the same?

The CQC still organises its assessment around the five familiar questions:

Is your service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?

But the new CQC approach uses quality statements rather than the former Key Lines of Enquiry, prompts and ratings. The statements describe what the regulator expects good care to look like, and are intended to connect more directly with the regulations.

How will they gather evidence?

From different sources, internal and external to your practice rather than just relying on a visit. This could include asking about people’s experience of care, for instance, collecting feedback from staff and leaders, and examining outcomes, but this can vary depending on the sector and the service.

What does this mean for my practice?

It means preparing for CQC will be less about trying to anticipate a particular list of inspection questions and more about being able to demonstrate that your practice consistently meets the relevant standards.

How can my practice make sure we’re ready for a possible assessment?

The useful question to ask is not just “Do we have the policy?” but “Can we demonstrate it’s actually happening, that we monitor it, and that we act when something isn’t working?”

It’s vital to keep your full range of risk assessments up to date, and this will also provide the opportunity to talk to health and safety experts such as the Bison professionals.

They’ll  answer your questions, provide recommendations and guidance, and give continuing support to help you make sure your practice remains compliant and a safe place to work and be treated.

How do I get expert help today?

Risk assessment experts are always available on hand with up to date knowledge and advice.