Agenda item

The Deputy Chairman reported on two conferences he had attended on behalf of the Sub Committee since the last meeting concerning the Care Quality Commission’s consultation on a new approach to inspecting, regulating and rating services. He reported that the new rating system will be an improvement on the current compliant/non-compliant model, and would have four possible ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement, and Inadequate. A middle rank of satisfactory was likely to be excluded to prevent it becoming a default position. The Deputy Chairman advised that for hospital trusts it was proposed to provide these ranks in 3 dimensions:

1. Across their different sites
2. Across their different core services
3. Across five key questions: Is it safe, Is it effective? Is it caring? Is it responsive to people’s needs? Is it well-led?

The Deputy Chairman expressed his concern that this may result in ratings being granular and difficult for the public to easily understand, but it was agreed that this would still be an improvement on the current system.