For much of the six months I have been in post as CQC’s Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, I have been listening. It is essential that we hear directly from people using services, social care leaders, stakeholders, providers and colleagues to really understand the concerns, challenges and opportunities that unite us all.
Regularly asking for feedback – and acting on it – is embedded throughout both the regulations and as a characteristic that reflects quality in our draft assessment frameworks. People using services, and those close to them, need to know how to give feedback through a range of accessible methods. Importantly, they must feel safe to do so – knowing that they will be taken seriously and not disadvantaged as a consequence.
The role of feedback
Feedback of all kinds is vital to our work at CQC. We welcome people’s feedback about their care – whether it is to report a positive experience or to raise any concerns about poor care – and we use it in our regulatory work. The information helps us to intervene if necessary and to celebrate and share good practice.
People’s feedback about their care is central to understanding whether we’re collectively achieving our shared ambition across the health and care system – that everyone receives safe, effective, compassionate and high-quality care.
Share for Better Care
Our second annual Share for Better Care awareness week starts on 23rd March. The week is part of our ongoing public campaign, which we run jointly with Healthwatch England, to encourage more people to give feedback about their experiences of care.
Share for Better Care week is an opportunity to showcase the importance of feedback, whether that is indicating things that can be improved or sharing positive examples that have improved someone’s experience.
Many of our inspection reports where a provider has been rated as ‘Outstanding’ describe the way leaders have asked for feedback and incorporated it into their processes to improve care. Making meaningful changes in this way demonstrates the importance of listening to what people have to say and builds a relationship of trust between the service and the people who use it.
Our Share for Better Care campaign is aimed at people who are more likely to have a poorer experience of care and who may face inequalities in health and care. This helps us in our ambition to tackle inequalities and ensure equity in experiences and outcomes from health and care.
Share your feedback with CQC
The work on our draft assessment frameworks retains a focus on people’s experiences at its core. That work, of course, is based on the feedback we have received through independent reports and our recent public consultation. As we develop new rating characteristics to describe the quality of care we think people should expect, we will also be ensuring further opportunities for ongoing engagement.
During April and May, you will be able to get involved with our online and face-to-face engagement events. These will bring together providers, CQC staff and the public to examine the specific adult social care framework and confirm that it, and the other draft sector frameworks, will enable us to improve how we work and help providers to understand what we expect of them.
Transforming care quality
I was struck by the importance and impact of acting on feedback in a recent inspection report. We upgraded the rating of the Birchwood care home in Chesham from ‘Inadequate’ to Outstanding following an inspection in January.
When we last inspected Birchwood, we found serious failings in safety and leadership that were putting people at risk of unsafe care. This time, inspectors found a much stronger, more positive culture at the home. Leaders are now hands-on, approachable and supportive. Staff told us they feel comfortable raising concerns with the registered manager and are confident those concerns will be acted on, meaning care was now consistently improving.
The people living at Birchwood, which is a residential care home for autistic people and people with a learning disability, are now receiving high-quality care that is truly tailored to their needs. Everyone at Birchwood should be proud of these improvements, and other services can look to this report as an example of how to use our inspection findings to transform the quality of care they provide.
To find out more about the Share for Better Care campaign and how you can get involved, visit CQC’s website.
Chris Badger is Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care at CQC. Email: [email protected] X: @CQCProf