The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. Their purpose is to ensure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care. Care providers are expected to meet a number of legal requirements and fundamental standards, such as:

• The place where you receive care and treatment and the equipment used in it must be clean, suitable and looked after properly.
   
• The provider of your care must have enough suitably qualified, competent and experienced staff to make sure they can meet these standards. 
   
• The provider of your care must have plans that make sure they can meet these standards.

Services are monitored and inspected to see whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. To help people choose their care, information about the quality of services is published on the CQC website, including reports and ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate.

A Quality Management System (QMS) approach can support the achievement of CQC requirements, helping care providers to deliver consistent high-quality care services and minimise risks (as to be evidenced in CQC inspections) and to address potential actions. Primarily by establishing a structured framework to ensure compliance with CQC requirements, such as implementation plans, processes and compliance monitoring. Also, by introducing simple and effective tools to:

1. Manage documents (including control measures) - to clarify ways of working and keep important records.
    
2. Mitigate risks - to proactively identify areas of concern, implement controls and monitor results.
    
3. Operate suitable equipment – clean and suitable with preventative maintenance plans to minimise the risk of failures or inaccuracies.
    
4. Provide competent teams with appropriate training - including assessments and performance management.
    
5. Capture patient feedback and satisfaction – involving patients in the continuous improvement of high-quality care services.

Care service providers can demonstrate their commitment to meeting CQC requirements by adopting a QMS approach.

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If you would like to know more about what is involved in taking a QMS approach, feel free to send a DM to: Aniela Tallentire   or  Tallentire Consultancy Ltd

Alternatively, A Simple Guide to QMS & ISO 9001 On-Demand Training Video Course is available, providing a straightforward & practical approach to understanding & implementing a QMS to ISO 9001 standards. Benefitting from expertise to accelerate the implementation process & avoid some common pitfalls. Click here for more information.