Our response to the interim findings of the Dash review into our operational effectiveness

Dr Penelope Dash has published the interim findings of her review of our operational effectiveness.

This interim report gives a high-level summary of Dr Dash's early findings. It has been published to help shape the changes needed to start the process of improving CQC.

In response, Kate Terroni, our interim chief executive, said:

"We accept in full the findings and recommendations in this interim review, which identifies clear areas where improvement is urgently needed. Many of these align with areas we have prioritised as part of our work to restore trust with the public and providers by listening better, working together more collaboratively and being honest about what we’ve got wrong.

"We are working at pace and in consultation with our stakeholders to rebuild that trust and become the strong, credible, and effective regulator of health and care services that the public and providers need and deserve."

Professor Sir Mike Richards has been appointed to conduct a targeted review of how the single assessment framework is currently working for NHS trusts and where we can make improvements.

Kate was appointed interim Chief Executive at the start of the month, after Ian Trenholm's departure. Following her appointment, Kate set out 3 urgent and immediate areas of action:

We'll be updating our website with more information about our change programme in the coming weeks.

Helping integrated care systems reduce health inequalities

Four integrated care systems (ICS) will be testing a new framework looking at how they speak with people and communities. The framework helps ICSs check how effective this work is at reducing health inequalities.

The framework has been developed by CQC, National Voices and the Point of Care Foundation.

National Voices and the Point of Care Foundation led the recruitment of ICSs through an open applications process. They received expressions of interest from 11 ICSs and selected 4 for testing:

The successful ICSs were chosen to make sure there was a mix of demographics, geography, level of deprivation and experience in addressing health inequalities. The testing phase will take place during the autumn.

This project is supported by a grant from the Regulators' Pioneers Fund, and work began in February 2024.

Our update on the safer management of controlled drugs

Earlier this month we published our annual update on the safer management and use of controlled drugs.

The report shares important insight on the use of controlled drugs in health care and adult social care services.

The annual update draws on prescribing data, feedback from controlled drug local intelligence networks, and our wider inspection and regulatory work. The report will help people working with controlled drugs to strengthen the arrangements for their safe management and use.

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 annual report looking at the quality of care in Defence Medical Services

We've published our latest annual report looking at our independent inspections of Defence Medical Services (DMS).

The Defence Medical Services provide medical care for members of HM Armed Forces. We inspect defence medical treatment facilities to ensure that armed forces personnel and their families have access to the same high-quality care as the rest of society. Our annual reports highlight the key findings from inspections.

In 2023/24, we carried out first inspections and follow-up inspections of services including: medical centres, dental centres, community mental health services, a regional rehabilitation unit, and the Pre-Hospital Emergency Care (PHEC) service for British Forces Cyprus.

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