Care Quality Commission launches - 1 April 2009

Source

CQC will put the public and users of services first.
Speaking this evening  (1 April) to 200 people from across the worlds of health, mental health and adult social care at a reception to mark the launch of the new Care Quality Commission (CQC), CQC Chair Barbara Young will say that today marks a new stage in the drive for quality and safety in health and adult social care.

• "CQC will join up the regulation of health and adult social care across the public and independent sectors for the first time. The public wants good quality of care wherever it is provided and wants care that is joined up. Particularly as the population ages, the care people receive spans sectors and they should have assurance that, no matter where their care is delivered, the services are operating to the same essential common quality standards."
• "We will put people's rights to good quality and safe care right at the heart of what we do.  We will work hard to ensure that users of services and their carers and families are fully involved in shaping our work and the driving up of quality.
• "We'll be a modern, proportionate and responsive regulator. We will work with the providers and commissioners of services to encourage improvement.  That doesn't mean we'll be an easy touch. We will have a range of tough new enforcement powers and we won't be afraid to use them when it is appropriate. But our first aim will be to prevent problems through encouraging improvement.
• "Over the next three years we will bring a range of services, including primary care, GP and dental services into a single registration system spanning both the health and adult social care system.  We want to make sure that both the users and providers of services will be heavily involved in shaping and developing the new system."

Speaking at the same event Cynthia Bower, Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission welcomed staff to the new organisation, most of whom have come from the predecessor commissions. "I am delighted to inherit such a talented group of people and am looking forward to working with them to build on the good work they have been doing. Our staff will be our strength and I am confident that we have a great team in place to make us a first class regulator."

CQC Video
Chairman, Barbara Young, and Chief Executive, Cynthia Bower, explain what the Care Quality Commission aims to achieve.
 

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