The Care Quality Commission (CQC) states that just 1% of organisations who provide care in the home have been awarded their maximum rating of ‘outstanding’
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) states that just 1% of organisations who provide care in the home have been awarded their maximum rating of ‘outstanding’.
The Good Care Group is now a proud recipient of such a rating, joining an exclusive group of care providers who work tirelessly to improve the quality of care for people in need.
To help you understand just how important this rating is for The Good Care Group and our clients, we have prepared this fact sheet to explain all that goes into a CQC inspection.
Who is the CQC?
The CQC is the independent care regulator of health and adult social care providers in England.
The regulator inspects all such providers and awards a care standard rating that’s made available to both people using care services and the general public. The CQC’s aim is to ensure that health and social care providers are delivering a safe, effective caring, responsive and well led service using their key lines of enquiry framework.
Care ratings
Every care provider is given one of four ratings depending on the CQC’s findings. These are as follows:
| Outstanding: | The service is performing exceptionally well. |
| Good: | The service is performing well and meeting our expectations. |
| Requires improvement: | The service isn’t performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve. |
| Inadequate: | The service is performing badly and we’ve taken action against the person or organisation that runs it. |
*Information courtesy of the CQC
Care providers must display this rating in a place where people who use their services can easily find it, such as on their website. When the service is deemed to be below an ‘outstanding’ level, the CQC will provide tangible advice to help the provider improve their service.
Five key questions
Care providers are rated on the areas defined by the five key lines of enquiry, as well as being given an overall rating. These questions are used as a guideline for the inspection process.
These are the five key questions used by the CQC:
| Question: | What this means for care receivers: |
| Are they safe? | You are protected from abuse and avoidable harm.
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| Are they effective? | Your care, treatment and support achieves good outcomes, helps you to maintain quality of life and is based on the best available evidence. |
| Are they caring?
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Staff involve and treat you with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. |
| Are they responsive to people’s needs? | Services are organised so that they meet your needs. |
| Are they well-led? | The leadership, management and governance of the organisation make sure it’s providing high-quality care that’s based around your individual needs, that it encourages learning and innovation, and that it promotes an open and fair culture. |
*Information courtesy of the CQC
The inspection
CQC inspections take the form of a site visit. This enables inspectors to observe care practices and review care records. They will also make contact with people who use the services, the provider’s employees and community health care professionals that work with the provider.
The inspectors will focus primarily on points of concern, or on areas of exemplary performance. The CQC will then feedback on these to the care provider, with a view to helping them address any areas of concern.
Thank you
In honour of this momentous achievement, we would like to sincerely thank our dedicated, and inspirational staff, who work tirelessly to bring to life the values of The Good Care Group and without whom, none of this would have been possible.
If you would like to learn more about the practices that have enabled The Good Care Group to achieve an ‘outstanding’ rating, give our friendly team a call.
