The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. They monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure that providers are meeting essential standards of quality and safety.
These are standards that health care services have a responsibility to meet and that everyone should expect when they receive care.
The CQC looks at the quality and safety of care by assessing whether the service is:
- Safe
- Effective
- Caring
- Responsive to People’s Needs
- Well-led
They carry can out a mixture of announced and unannounced inspections, conducted by inspection teams of professional and clinical staff, patients and carers from NHS organisations around the country. At the conclusion of inspection, the CQC makes judgements on how well the service is performing.
The CQC rate services on a four-point scale: outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.
You can find out more on the Care Quality Commission’s website which contains details of all its visits and assessments.