What is the Care Quality Commission?

The Care Quality Commission is defined as a non-departmental public body of the government of the United Kingdom. It was established in the year 2009 and endowed with the responsibility of regulating and inspecting all health and social care services in England. The scope of their authority encompasses services provided by local authorities, private companies, voluntary organizations, and the NHS. Part of their mandate is to protect the interests of individuals whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.

Until the Care Quality Commission was established, health and adult social care in England was regulated by the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection, respectively. And the Mental Health Act Commission was given monitoring functions in relation to the application of the Mental Health Act of 1983. These three bodies were then replaced upon the passage of the Health and Social Care Act of 2008.

The integrated body that replaced the three previous monitoring and regulating bodies, the Care Quality Commission, was given the functions of assuring safety and quality, assessing the performance of providers, monitoring the implementation of the Mental Health Act, and ensuring that regulation and inspection activities are properly coordinated and managed. There have already been a lot of good examples of integrated health and social care services delivery, so the creation of just one regulatory body was seen to fit very well with this.

Since the establishment of the new commission, health and social care providers were required to register with the new regulating body so they can legally provide these services. All registration requirements are consistent for all providers of both health and adult social care services, and these providers were all subjected to a consultation. For the staff of these service providers, the new system is expected to provide much clearer guidelines as to what requirements they should meet in order to be allowed to provide services.

Furthermore, transferring the functions of the mental Health Act Commission to the Care Quality Commission is expected to strengthen the monitoring of the implementation of the Mental Health Act and at the same time offer increased oversight on the treatment of patients who are subject to compulsory detention. And while a registration system for health and social care providers already existed previously under the Care Standards Act of 2000, this system does not include the NHS.

The new system, on the other hand, will incorporate health and social care service providers from all sectors, which means that the NHS is also required to register. In developing the new registration system as well as the registration requirements, both the government and the commission itself aim to build on the experience of the previous commissions and the existing service providers in operating against current standards.

Just last year, the commission required all health and social care providers to re-register their services. This move proved to be unpopular, as many care providers felt that their current inspection rating was being placed under threat. As a result, the Care Quality Commission was expected to submit a report on a new regulation system in April 2011.