Government monitoring CQC improvements ‘very closely’

Exclusive The Government is monitoring the CQC ‘very closely’ and will be ‘ready to step in’ if improvements are not seen, the primary care minister has said.

Speaking at the Pulse LIVE London conference yesterday, Stephen Kinnock responded to a question from the audience about potentially scrapping the CQC in light of the damning review into the regulator published last year.

Mr Kinnock indicated CQC was still needed but stressed he believes there will be ‘significant improvement’ in the performance of the CQC following the review and leadership changes, including the appointment of new CQC chief executive Sir Julian Hartley.

He said: ‘It’s clear that under the previous management of the CQC, a number of things were not working at all as well as they should, and there was therefore a change of leadership.

‘And I think that change at the top will deliver a significant improvement in the performance of the CQC.’

However, he added that the Government is ‘watching’ and ‘monitoring very closely’ and will be ready to step in if they think the CQC is ‘not working’ as it should.

He said: ‘I think we’ve got to end up with a system that works both for the inspectorate, but also very much for those who are being inspected, so everybody understands what the objectives of the exercise are.

‘It’s not about finger pointing, it’s not about blame, it’s about driving up standards across the board, and the only way you can do that is by engaging with your stakeholders.

‘And I think Mr Hartley is committed to doing that. But we’re watching that, monitoring that very, very closely, and the Government will always be ready to step in if we think it’s not working.’

Mr Kinnock said he met with Sir Julian last week to talk about CQC reforms. It comes after the CQC chief executive told MPs earlier this year that about 500 CQC reports were ‘stuck’ in the watchdog’s system and could not be retrieved due to IT issues, including reports for 14 GP practices.

Sir Julian said that IT problems with the new system implemented by the CQC in the last few years were so significant, they caused staff ‘deep distress’ and ‘a real sense that it was stopping them from doing their jobs’.

Mr Kinnock told the conference: ‘I think they’ve had a completely dysfunctional IT system, which has ended up with them doing different reports on different parts of the system, and that has created all sorts of challenges, which has led to a massive backlog in their reporting.

‘I think that’s probably one of the root causes of the serious challenges that they ended up with at the CQC. I genuinely feel that Julian Hartley is getting a grip.’

However, he added, on the need for a regulator: ‘I think we have to have some kind of regulatory and inspection system that is independent of government, and that is there to give patients assurance that quality will be monitored, evaluated and standards will be driven up, and where things are not working, that will be called out and people will be called to account for that.’

Last year, a major review into the CQC commissioned by the Government confirmed ‘significant failings’ in the way the watchdog operates.

The damning review found that CQC ‘lost its credibility’ within the services and providers it inspects, with a ‘lack of consistency’ and transparency observed in CQC ratings of GP practices.

Another internal review, carried out by the CQC itself, at the same time found that a ‘fundamental reset of the organisation is needed’ and that the regulator ‘will never be able to deliver on its objectives’ if the current structure is maintained.

Following the findings, the RCGP called for a temporary pause of CQC routine inspections of GP practices, although it stressed inspections of practices where patient safety concerns have been raised must continue.