New guidance on alcohol in care homes

We have worked with the University of Bedfordshire to produce guidance for members of the public and care home managers on the availability and management of alcohol in care homes.

The guidance is based on a study on alcohol use in care homes which found that residents, families, staff and inspectors felt strongly that people living in care homes should be able to continue drinking alcohol when they move into a home.

Speaking about the research and new guidance, CQC's Amy Hopwood said:

This important research shines a light on the importance of care homes safely supporting their residents to continue drinking alcohol if they wish to, using their professional expertise to balance the risks alongside the individuals preferences.

Just like anything else in life that is a matter of taste and choice, how care homes manage alcohol is a strong indicator of how well they are delivering good, safe, personalised care to their residents.

The research findings and new guidance can be downloaded from the University of Bedfordshire's Substance Misuse and Ageing Research Team's web pages.

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.

The rollout of our new assessment framework begins

We have now started our rollout of the new assessment framework in our South region and with 'early adopter' providers that volunteered to take part.

Our new framework focuses on what matters to people who use health and social care services and their families. It will let us provide an up-to-date view of quality.

Over the next few months, we will continue to do this region by region. We will be contacting providers with information as we begin in each one.

These changes will help us to get closer to our ambition to regulate in a smarter way and respond to risk. We will be able to have a better understanding of the quality of care in a local area or healthcare system, and ultimately keep people safe.

New blog: Bringing humanity into action our revised human rights approach to regulation

Lucy Wilkinson, our interim head of equality, health inequalities and human rights, has written a blog looking at the fundamental link between human rights and delivering safe, good quality care.

The blog discusses our refreshed human rights approach, based on the FREDA principles of fairness, respect, equality, dignity and autonomy, and how this works with our new assessment framework.

Our human rights approach recognises that rights-based care is intrinsically linked with the quality of care.

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