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22/7/10
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CARINGCOMMERCE
Where do we stand with CQC? By Stuart Marchant PRIOR to the advent of the CQC, care providers had been used to dealing with a regulator, in the shape of CSCI, which was outspoken and tough. At the time, Dame Denise Platt came across to the sector as dictatorial and uncompromising. But at least everyone knew where they stood, unlike with CQC. The new regulator has not had an easy start to life. The former chair, Baroness Barbara Young, was combative in her style but politically unpopular. Although she resigned over six months ago, she has still not been replaced – Jo Williams has been acting chair since February. Chief executive Cynthia Bower has long been tarnished by her role in the Mid Staffordshire Hospitals scandal, and is not liked by health secretary Andrew Lansley, who said: “We have to ask whether it is right that the person in charge of the West Midlands SHA at the time, Cynthia Bower, is now to be put in charge of the national regulator.” But this is old news, even if it remains relevant. More interestingly we have seen the following recent developments: Jamie Rentoul and Gary Needle have resigned from CQC’s executive board, prompting questions of an internal power struggle about how CQC will regulate services. CQC has drafted in external consultants “to help develop its relationship with the sector” in the form of Bill Hodson (formerly City of York Council and ADASS) and Barbara Laing (formerly Anchor). CQC has announced the scrap-
ping of the star rating system which will be replaced by a new quality rating mechanism. Cynthia Bower heralded: “From October 1 we will have new standards and a new registration system, so it makes sense to develop a new way to compare quality across adult social care services.” We have also been told that it will be transparent and fair. What does this tell us about the current star ratings? Can we really trust the new system to be any better? The biggest current challenge for CQC is the task of re-registering adult social care providers. In the last week, I have spoken to (a) a provider who has found the process straight forward; (b) a provider who questions the legality of making providers jump through hoops in a way that was not required by the more fundamental switch from Registered Homes Act 1984 to Care Standards Act 2000 – in the process asking for essays about human rights and equality; (c) a provider who has a team of people getting on top of the major logistical project of preparing to re-register dozens of locations; and (d) various providers who are getting mixed messages from the industry and the regulator about which ‘service category’ boxes they should be ticking to protect their position. And will the threats of poor providers not being re-registered be made good? I certainly hope not. There are proper processes to follow and this cannot be used as a back door means of cancelling registrations. Stuart Marchant is a partner at regulatory law firm Bates Wells and Braithwaite.
It’s all good (or excellent) at East Anglia care company AN East Anglia care company has now achieved a ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ rating in all of its care homes and home care services. The results were revealed after the CQC carried out its latest inspections at homes and homecare branches owned by Healthcare Homes. Hillcroft House in Stowmarket and The Manor House in North Walsham were recently rated ‘good’. Chief executive Richard Clough said: “This is a tremendous achievement and one of which we are very proud. “As one of the larger independent care companies we continually strive to ensure that we attain the highest standards. At the heart of what we do is always to provide care and support appropriate to the needs of each individual.” The group recently acquired John Stanley’s Care Agency Limited, which delivers home care services across Thurrock, Havering, Barking,
Dagenham and Southend. And almost nine in every 10 Four Seasons Health Care homes in England are rated ‘good’ or ‘excellent’, it has been revealed. 88 per cent of homes have the two or three-star rating, which represents a dramatic turnaround since the first regulatory inspections were conducted in 2006 when the group was below the sector average. Chief executive Pete Calveley said: “One of our home managers captured what quality is all about when she said ‘I would happily put my mother into my home’. “Being able to provide assurance of quality of care has become a pre-requisite to be able to continue to operate and to attract customers. “It is not coincidence that along with our improvement in quality ratings we have seen occupancy rise at a time when many other care home groups are experiencing falling demand.”
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