HOW CQC ASSESS AND MEASURE THE QUALITY OF HOME CARE.

So we’ve tried to identify what constitutes quality in home care, and now we’ll take a look at how CQC assess and measure that.

CQC of course look at files. Many files.

Staff, clients, safeguarding, MAR charts, visit record sheets, rostering records.

Does that truly measure the quality of a home care provider?

Not really.

But it’s easy to do. It’s desk-based. It’s cheap.

Of course, CQC ring a number of clients and staff, and ask them questions.

Again, desk-based. Cheap.

True assessment, true regulation would involve assessors being at clients’ houses, watching the staff arrive, watching them doing the work.

Of course, they would need to gain a client’s consent for the intrusion, but many wouldn’t mind. We do it all the time when we do in-the-field supervisions.

But it would be more difficult to arrange, more time-consuming, more costly.

And dare I say it would the inspector know what to look for.