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The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is asking for views on its plans for the next three years.

In a consultation paper on its strategy for 2013-2016 published recently, the national regulator for health and adult social care sets out proposals for what it thinks it should focus on and what the public and others can expect from it.

CQC’s new Chief Executive David Behan said: ‘‘For CQC, being successful means that more health and care services meet quality and safety standards – and improve quickly if they don’t.

‘I want people to know that together with Healthwatch as the consumer champion we will listen to them and use their experiences help to inform the judgements we make about services.

‘And I want to ensure providers of services understand what good looks like and what is unacceptable so they can improve the services they provide.

‘CQC is now in its fourth year. As we enter the next stage of our development I am clear that our role is to check that health and care services meet national standards and in that way drive improvements in the quality and safety of services.

‘Perhaps the most significant of our proposed changes is that we’ll tailor the way we regulate different types of organisations based on what has the most impact on driving improvement. We will put people’s views at the centre of what we do.

‘We also recognise we need to work more effectively with others. We have a common goal with other organisations to improve the quality of health and care services. By sharing information and acting together we will be more effective in driving improvement.

The consultation paper also says that over next three years CQC will improve the way it uses information to help it spot and address poor care faster. It will highlight what works well so the people who run health and care services can improve the quality of the care they provide. And it will make it easier for people to access and understand its information.

At the same time, it will continue to carry out thousands of regular unannounced inspections and go in at any time where there are concerns about poor care.

CQC Chair, Dame Jo Williams said: ‘A clearer strategy for CQC will make a vital contribution to improving the care that people have a right to expect. It will enable us to focus our action where there is greatest risk, to become an authority on the state of care, tackle poor standards, work with others to drive improvements in the quality of health and adult social care more decisively than ever. It gives us a real opportunity to make a difference and we are determined to do so.

‘We talked to hundreds of people in preparing these plans and we’re hoping hundreds more will share their views with us.’

The consultation paper asks for people’s views on seven specific questions about the proposed approach. These cover how CQC regulates services, how it manages its independence, its relationship with the public and with organisations that provide care, its role in the complaints system, its responsibilities in relation to mental health services and on how it can measure its own impact.

The consultation runs until 6 December. Full details of the proposals and how to respond are on CQC Next Phase.

For media enquiries call the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 during office hours or out of hours on 07917 232 143. For general enquiries call 03000 616161.

Note to editors

The full questions are:

1. What are your views on CQC moving towards a more evidence-based approach to the regulation of services, which may mean we regulate different services in different ways?
2. What are your views on our approach to managing our independence and interdependence with our national strategic partners and other organisations? Do they strike the right balance?
3. What are your views on our approach to building better relationships with the public?
4. What are your views on our proposed approach to tackle the confusion around the complaints system?
5. What are your views on whether our proposals will build respect and credibility amongst providers?
6. What unique contribution can the regulator make on mental health and mental capacity to the delivery of the government’s mental health strategy No Health Without Mental Health?
7. What are your views on how we might most effectively measure our impact?

About the Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. We make sure that care in hospitals, dental practices, ambulances, care homes, people’s own homes and elsewhere meets government standards of quality and safety – the standards anyone should expect whenever or wherever they receive care. We also protect the interests of vulnerable people, including those whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act.

We register services if they meet government standards, we make unannounced inspections of services – both on a regular basis and in response to concerns – and we carry out investigations into why care fails to improve. We continually monitor information from our inspections, from information we collect nationally and locally, and from the public, local groups, care workers and whistleblowers. We put the views, experiences, health and wellbeing of people who use services at the centre of our work and we have a range of powers we can use to take action if people are getting poor care.

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