The Care Quality Commission (CQC) serves as the independent regulator for all health and adult social care services operating in England.

 

Their primary mission is to ensure that these essential services consistently provide individuals with safe, effective, compassionate, and high-quality care. Furthermore, the CQC actively encourages care services to continually improve their offerings.

 

To achieve this, the CQC undertakes comprehensive monitoring, rigorous inspections, and effective regulation of these services, verifying their adherence to fundamental standards of quality and safety. Importantly, they also publish clear and accessible performance ratings to assist the public in making informed decisions when choosing care. The standards of care established by the CQC define what constitutes good and outstanding care, ensuring that services never fall below a set of fundamental requirements.

 

These key standards encompass critical areas such as safeguarding individuals from abuse, ensuring adequate food and drink provision, maintaining suitable premises and equipment, having effective complaints procedures, demonstrating good governance, ensuring appropriate staffing levels, employing fit and proper staff, adhering to the duty of candour, and clearly displaying their performance ratings