We Mustn’t Forget Mum In The CQCs ‘Mum Test’ Says Dr Richard Preece

Commenting on the Care Quality Commission’s new inspection regime for care Saga’s Dr Richard Preece commented “Choosing care for a loved one is an incredibly emotional and stressful time. More often than not, these decisions are made at a moment of crisis and there is often little time for people to research this life changing move in a way that they would for many other major family decisions. It’s therefore critical that families can have confidence in the consistency of the inspection regime to give them a uniform set of comparisons for the various different care options on offer. The Mum test approach is a good one when considered in the scheme of wanting to make sure that inspections are done with the ‘mum test’ in mind, however we need to remember that the individual receiving the support is at the heart of care and wherever possible we ensure ‘mum’ is involved in any decision made about her life.

“Over recent months we have worked closely with the Care Quality Commission to help shape the new inspection regime, and to help define ‘what good looks like’. We believe this is a significant step forward for universal standards across the care industry – however as always, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating and what we need to see now is this consistent applied. We also believe that further steps are required in order to drive up standards. Care Plans and assessment across local authorities and care providers is the key to defining the care that is required by individuals but there is no consistency in the approach to these across the Country. By adopting a comprehensive universal Care Plan would significantly help ensure that the post-code lottery approach to care is abolished and also ensure that person centred care can become a reality.”