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Newsletter Our monthly update for everyone interested in health and social care |
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 National review of maternity services published We have published the findings from our national programme of inspections of NHS maternity services. Between August 2022 and December 2023, we inspected 131 maternity units as part of a targeted programme to assess all hospital maternity locations that had not been inspected and rated since March 2021. The programme was carried out to provide an up-to-date view of safety and quality across England and to unpick and help address the lack of progress at some hospitals. We found continued concerns about the quality of NHS hospital maternity services with common issues impacting on safety at services across the country. Although we found some examples of good practice, of the 131 maternity units inspected just under half were rated requires improvement or inadequate ‘overall’. Around a third were rated good for ‘safety’. However, ‘safety’ standards at all other units inspected were rated either requires improvement or inadequate. Our report sets out our recommendations for NHS trusts, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and wider system partners to help address the issues identified as part of the inspection programme and support critical improvements for those using and working in maternity services across the country. |
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 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: - Inspector - Mental Health (various roles)
- Inspector - Adult Social Care (various roles)
- Inspector - Primary and Community Care (various roles)
- Inspector - Secondary Care (various roles)
- Strategic People Business Partner
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. |
 New resource aimed at encouraging improvement in NHS maternity services We have published a series of online resource materials aimed at sharing good practice and encouraging improvement in NHS hospital maternity services. The resource builds on findings from the National review of maternity services in England 2022 to 2024. While we know that many of the issues highlighted in the report are systemic, there are opportunities for services to improve and learn from one another. Based on evidence from our national inspection programme and engagement with providers, maternity staff and stakeholder organisations, the resources are based around 4 themes: - leadership and culture
- safety incidents
- triage processes and procedures
- healthcare equity.
The resource is aimed at maternity service staff at all levels to help support their efforts to deliver high-quality care and make improvements where needed. |
 Helping integrated care systems reduce health inequalities: progress update Earlier this year, we announced a project with National Voices and the Point of Care Foundation to develop new tools to reduce health inequalities. The improvement framework being developed will help integrated care systems (ICSs) understand how well their engagement is helping to reduce health inequalities. The project has 3 distinct phases: scoping, co-design, and testing. We have now shared the progress on the first 2 phases, the scoping phase (February to May 2024), and the co-design phase (April to July 2024). The next stage will be the testing phase. The draft framework will be tested in the autumn of 2024 with 4 voluntary ICSs. These were selected as they have a mix of demographics, geography, levels of deprivation and experience in addressing health inequalities. This work is being funded with a £635,394 grant from the Regulators’ Pioneer Fund. The fund is currently being delivered by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT). |
 Our report on the safe use of radiation in healthcare settings We have published our annual report looking at our work under the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) Regulations 2017 - IR(ME)R. The report includes the number of notifications we received about significant accidental and unintended exposures to patients between 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, and key themes from our inspections. The number of statutory notifications submitted shows an annual upward trend. We believe this is a generally positive indicator of a good patient safety culture in medical exposure to ionising radiation. The report also includes a breakdown of the types of errors from notifications, and examples of specific errors to share learning of why they happened and the actions taken in response. By recognising and reporting errors, other organisations can learn from them, which helps to mitigate the risks of repeat errors in the future. With effect from 1 October 2024, IR(ME)R 17 will be amended to the Ionising Radiation (Medical Exposure) (Amendment) Regulations 2024 - or 'IR(ME)R Amendments 2024' |
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