2023 CQC Changes to Regulation in Health and Social Care

Changes to Regulation in Health and Social Care. The Care Quality Commission has announced changes to the Health and Social Care regulations, to commence in 2023, but what are the changes and what does this mean for the sector? 

In early 2023, the regulator – CQC plans to implement new changes to their regulation approach. Knowing about these changes beforehand means that you can prepare, advise, and implement improvements whilst staying ahead of the requirements of the regulatory framework and wider expectations.  

The CQC strategy has two core ambitions: ‘ Assessing Local Systems’ and ‘Tackling Inequalities in Health and Care’. These core ambitions will impact and influence your future approach to regulation and the delivery of care at a high quality. The CQC strategy has four main themes: 

• People and communities: Regulation that’s driven by people’s needs and experiences, focusing on what’s important to people and communities when they access, use and move between services

• Smarter regulation: Smarter, more dynamic and flexible regulation that provides up-to-date and high-quality information and ratings, easier ways of working with us and a more proportionate response
• Safety through learning: Regulating for stronger safety cultures across health and care, prioritising learning and improvement and collaborating to value everyone’s perspectives
• Accelerating improvement: Enabling health and care services and local systems to access support to help improve the quality of care where it’s needed most

These four themes should be a focus to improve your organisation’s quality of care and future approach towards regulation covered by the CQC. The CQC will be looking at how the care provided is reducing inequality in care and improving outcomes in the local system.

This means looking at how care services are working together, and performing as a whole. The regulator will be looking to protect people’s Human Rights and advance equality. 

Here are the key points:

• The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is making changes to the Health and Social Care regulations that will go into effect in 2023.
• The goal of these changes is to ensure that the care people receive is of high quality and addresses any inequalities in the system.
• The CQC’s strategy has two main focuses: “Assessing Local Systems” and “Tackling Inequalities in Health and Care.”
• The strategy has four main themes: (1) People and communities (2) Smarter regulation (3) Safety through learning (4) Accelerating improvement.
• It is important for everyone in the health and social care sector to work together to protect people’s human rights and address inequalities in care.
• The CQC’s new strategy will outline their efforts to bring about change in this area. If we all work together to positively influence the care journey, we can build a better care service that values partnerships, collaboration, diversity, fairness, and respect.

Everyone within the health and social care sector has a role to play in protecting people’s Human Rights and fighting the inequalities in health and social care by regulation. The CQC’s new strategy will set out its aim to influence change. If everyone is empowered to positively influence the care service journey, it will be built on community inclusion, valuing partnerships, collaboration, diversity, fairness and respect to build a better care service across the board. 

To read the full update and stay ahead of changing regulation, read the full CQC Strategy by following the link: https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-will-regulate