CQC Key Lines Of Enquiry And Ratings Characteristics

CQC have published the ‘key lines of enquiry (KLOEs) and characteristics of each rating  documents for residential and community services on their website.

CQC have also published details about the new approach to inspection:

Providers guide to our new approach to regulating and inspecting services 

Links to this information will be included in CQC’s monthly e-bulletin for adult social care providers which was sent out to all registered services on 25 September.

CQC report that they are on track to publish the full handbooks for these services on 9 October.

NCF have been in discussion with CQC about clarifying the changes that are due to be implemented from the 1 October and have received the following statement from Rachael Dodgson, Head of Adult Social Care Policy at CQC:

“Testing of our new ‘Fresh Start’ adult social care inspection methodology is drawing to a successful close and we will be introducing our new methodology from 1 October 2014. 

The Fresh Start methodology includes rating services. The ratings answer our five key questions: Is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive to people’s needs, and well led? There will be a rating for each question and an overall rating. Ratings will be based on a four point scale; ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, Requires Improvement’, or ‘Inadequate’.

We will rate services by following the Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs) during inspections and assessing our findings against the ‘Characteristics of Ratings’. There are different KLOEs and Characteristics for different kinds of services.

Where a key question is rated as ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’ we will make a judgement about whether a regulation has been breached. Until April 2015, we will continue to use the existing regulations, guidance about compliance (the ‘Essential Standards of Quality and Safety’), and our enforcement policy to support our judgements about whether breaches have occurred and how we will respond to them. After April 2015 we will use the new ‘fundamental standards’ regulation. These had been due to come into force on 1 October 2014, but delays in the Parliamentary process mean that they will now be introduced in April 2015.

The new ‘Fundamental Standards’ regulations are more focused and clear about the care that people should always expect to receive. They include new requirements about the directors and boards of organisations being ‘fit and proper persons’, and a new ‘Duty of Candour’ on providers to be open and honest with people who use their service when things go wrong with their care and treatment”