The Care Quality Commission has begun a special programme of 250 unannounced inspections of home care services. Over the next three months the CQC will be carrying out inspections to test ways of getting better information about how services are performing and what people think about their services.
The inspections will run alongside CQC’s programme of planned inspections, under which it will inspect all of the 6,000 or so registered home care locations each year.
The 250 inspections build on what the regulator learned from a pilot programme of 30 inspections last autumn. CQC inspectors were joined by ‘experts by experience’ – people who have a personal experience of using home care services. Experts by experience and professional experts will also be involved in this inspection programme.
Philip King the director of regulatory development at the CQC, said: “Home care is an area where it has been difficult for regulators to carry out unannounced inspections. We clearly can’t turn up on someone’s doorstep hot on the heels of a carer without notice. And with a large number of small providers, inspectors need to be sure that there are sufficient staff available at the agency’s premises to assist with their questions without compromising care.
“This special programme of inspections will be based on unannounced inspections and will use a range of ways of getting the views of people who use services and their families.
“But we also want to use the programme to encourage providers to make sure their services comply with regulations and essential standards before their annual inspection takes place. Providers have been used to getting short notice of home care inspections: our message to all of them today is that we could be knocking on their door tomorrow.”
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