Local authority pilot assessments published

We have now published the findings of our pilot assessments of 5 local authorities.

Assessing how local authorities meet their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act (2014) is a new responsibility for CQC. During the pilots, we looked at 9 of our quality statements to assess how well each local authority is meeting its responsibilities. This enabled us to give an indicative rating.

The 5 authorities we looked at were:

We used the pilot assessments to test our assessment framework, methods and processes before starting our formal assessments of all 153 local authorities with adult social care responsibilities. These will start from December, pending government approval.

Join us! Work for CQC

CQC staff have a wide range of skills and work across many disciplines.

Find out about roles within CQC, Healthwatch England and the Office of the National Guardian.

Current vacancies include:

Benefits include generous leave entitlement, NHS or Nest pension schemes and a wide range of employee discounts.

Most roles offer flexible locations with the choice to be home-based. See the individual job listings for more information.

Our latest podcast: Smiling matters

The latest edition of our CQC Connect podcast looks at oral health in care homes.

We published 'Smiling matters: oral health care in care homes' in 2019, and followed up with a progress report in 2023.

Join us as we discuss the findings of the reports and the importance of oral health. We explore things that could improve the experience for people living in care homes; and talk through ways of creating better connections between dental professionals, commissioners, and care homes.

Catch up with the latest blogs from CQC

Take a look at our latest blog posts:

Our regulatory policy position on modern slavery and unethical international recruitment

Joyce Frederick, Director of Policy and Strategy, and Rebecca Bauers, Director for people with a learning disability and/or Autism, write about our new policy position on modern slavery and unethical international recruitment.

Person-centred care

Our Deputy Director of Adult Social Care, Amanda Partington-Todd, describes the importance of person-centred care.

Addressing health inequalities

James Bullion, interim Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care, gives his views on this years State of Care report. He also looks at our new responsibility to provide independent assurance to the public of the quality of care in their area by assessing local authorities and integrated care systems.

The environmental impact of medicine

Our Deputy Director Medicines Optimisation, Sarah Billington, talks about the environmental impact of medicine use in health and social care. She also invites you to support our new funded research into sustainable medicines optimisation.

Our report on the safe use of radiation in healthcare settings

Our annual report on how we enforce the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations - IR(ME)R - has been published.

The report provides a breakdown of the number and type of notifications we received about IR(ME)R incidents between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023, and findings from our inspections.

By sharing this information, we aim to help providers and healthcare professionals identify and take action where safety improvements may be needed in their own service.

Independent reviews of the care given to autistic people and people with a learning disability in long-term segregation

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has asked us to take the lead on reviewing the care of all autistic people and people with a learning disability in long-term segregation for the next 2 years.

In the first year, we will be working alongside NHS England.

This follows a report from Baroness Sheila Hollins, Chairperson of the Independent Care (Education) and Treatment Review (IC(E)TR) programme for people with a learning disability and autistic people in inpatient settings.

We are in the process of developing joint working arrangements with NHS England, along with finalising our methodology, quality and governance processes. To evaluate the work, we will develop ways to collect feedback from people and their carers.

Do you work in health or social care?

Sign up to our other newsletters and follow us on Twitter to make sure you always get the latest information from us.