New Equality Objectives To Target Inequality In Health And Social Care

The CQC has published ambitious new equality objectives for 2017 – 19. Despite progress on equality, people from some equality groups are still less likely to receive good quality health and social care, they say.

The new objectives for the next two years focus on our regulatory role in improving equality. Through inspections, the CQC will check that providers make person-centred care work for everyone, from all equality groups – for example for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people using adult social care or mental health inpatient services.

They will look at how they are meeting the new Accessible Information Standard, which applies to disabled people who have information and communication needs, for example, deaf people or people with a learning disability, and will also ensure that we communicate with everyone who contacts us in a way that is accessible for them.

They have also set an objective to look at reducing barriers and improving access to primary care for migrants, asylum seekers, Gypsies and Travellers, to help address their poor health outcomes, and will also look at how people in specific equality groups are supported on referral, transfer between services – including adult social care services and health services – on discharge from hospital and in primary care.

The objectives also focus on the leadership that is needed in health and social care services to ensure equality, as there is a strong link ink between equality for staff and good quality care. This builds on learning from inspecting the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) in hospitals.