Quality of Care - residential and community care
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent inspector and regulator of health and social care services in England. They make sure health and social care services, such as Care Homes and Care and Support in peoples’ own homes are safe, effective and high-quality.
The CQC monitor, inspect and regulate services to make sure that they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and they publish what they find to help people make informed decisions about their choice of care. The CQC focus on safety, effectiveness, caring environment, responsive to people's needs, and leadership. Information and intelligence is gathered from a range of sources including: Local Authorities, NHS and the Care Provider, and then carry out an on-site inspection.
There are four ratings which the CQC give to health and social care services:
- Outstanding - The service is performing exceptionally well.
- Good - The service is performing well and meeting our expectations.
- Requires improvement - The service isn't performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve.
- Inadequate - The service is performing badly and we've taken action against the person or organisation that runs it.
Residential care
November 2020 performance
The numbers of inspections remain greatly reduced due to
Covid-19, however, there has been some improvements.
WSCC continues to support the market and, during Covid19,
has focused on prioritisation of support for services impacted by the pandemic
through introduction of a new Provider Support Zone on West Sussex Connect to
Support website - offering care providers access to support from health and
social care through; published advice, guidance, information and a single
contact/access point for care providers.
WSCC continues to work with health partners to offer Infection Prevention & Control support and training to services, collation and prioritisation of distribution of emergency PPE supplies and access to Coronavirus testing in addition to management and facilitation of central government support funding.
Community care
We work with providers to improve quality, however, we are currently reviewing how this support is delivered to ensure that CQC ratings are improved and existing good quality is sustained throughout the coming year and improvements are made towards the target.
The Council continues to support the care market with initiatives to improve quality of services and improve the recruitment and retention of staff through Proud to Care (West Sussex).
Commissioning arrangements for Care at Home are currently under review, with a key focus on models of care that grow sustainable capacity at the right quality to support people to safely remain at home.