CQC Consults On New Market Oversight Scheme

Draft guidance has been published for all adult social care providers, partners and members of the public to have their say on what they think to our proposals setting out how our Market Oversight scheme could operate.

Commenting on the draft guidance for providers, CQC Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, Andrea Sutcliffe, said: “Change in social care providers is happening all the time and can usually be well managed locally. But this may not be possible for some providers who have a lot of services across the country or provide specialist services that would be very difficult to replace…

“Introduced in the 2014 Care Act, our new scheme will combine the quality monitoring we already do at CQC with a new role of monitoring the financial sustainability of these difficult to replace providers. Our aim is to spot if a provider may be at risk of failing so that action can be taken to protect people’s continuity of care. That is the focus of this work, to make sure that people in vulnerable circumstances do not suffer disruption to their care and the distress this would cause them, their families and carers… “The draft provider guidance sets out how we plan to deliver an effective operating model from April in more detail, including what will be expected of providers who meet the criteria.We have been working in co-production with people who use services, providers, local authority commissioners, financial experts and other organisations from the sector to develop the model and I would like to thank everyone who has been involved. I encourage anyone who has an interest to share their feedback with us.”

Ray James, Vice President of ADASS, added: “When provider failure happens it can cause significant distress and anxiety for those in vulnerable circumstances who are reliant on care services.  It can also be very challenging for local councils to ensure that people get the continuity of care they need. CQC’s development of a Market Oversight scheme should give us a better chance of having capacity to react quickly and effectively to reduce uncertainty for adult social care service users, carers and staff in the event of provider failure… “I want to commend CQC on the way they have worked with so many people across the sector to produce this draft guidance and encourage colleagues from across the adult social care sector to take the time to have their say on this important piece of guidance.”

The deadline for comments on the draft Market Oversight guidance for providers is Friday 20 February.

Final guidance for providers is expected to be published by early April.