Care Quality Commission (CQC)

Care Quality Commission (CQC)

There is to be new commission bringing health, social care and mental health together and I (Dee Frost) have been asked to consult following a meting I had in August with Baroness Young, who is the Chair of the Commission. I attach below my invite letter for your information and will keep you all updated as to what happnes.


Dear Dee Frost

I am writing to invite you to give your views about the future of the Care Quality Commission.

The Care Quality Commission is a new organisation which will bring together the work of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, the Healthcare Commission, and the Mental Health Act Commission. Our work will bring together regulation of the quality of health and adult social care for the first time. We will take up our responsibilities in April 2009, and will regulate and improve the quality of health and social care and look after the interests of people detained under the Mental Health Act.

As the care watchdog in England, we need to make sure that we take into account any changes in mental health, social and health care policies and the way services are provided. We also want to make sure we know and understand the standards of care that our stakeholders and members of the public expect and the issues that matter most to them.

At the moment, we are consulting on how we intend to use our enforcement powers, which include the Care Standards Act (CSA) 2000 powers and three new powers under the Health and Social Care Act 2008. There are also a number of other issues which we will want to seek people’s views on before our formal launch in April 2009.

As one of our key stakeholders, we would like to invite you to give your views, initially on how we use our enforcement powers. There are two ways to get involved:

1. Attend one of a series of one-day events taking place in:

o London on 7th January

o Bristol on 9th January

o Birmingham on 15th January

o Leeds on 16th January

2. Take part in the Care Quality Commission online community which will provide an online forum for ongoing dialogue from 5th to 16th January

Please note that places are limited so please respond as soon as possible if you would like to be involved. To register your interest please click on the following link and complete the online form (if your link is not blue underlined, please copy (Ctrl+C) and paste into your browser address bar (Ctrl+V).: -

http://registration.nqual.com/InternalSurvey/StartSurvey.aspx?sid=12

If you have any technical problems registering please contact 0207 138 4057 or support@cqc-community.nqual.com

If you attend an event, you will be offered a payment of £40 to recognise your time, skills and expertise. We will also reimburse your standard class travel expenses up to £30 (unless otherwise agreed). The online registration also provides an opportunity for you to let us know about any support you may require. If you take part in the online community, you will be offered a payment of £50 to recognise your time, skills and expertise. The same content will be covered in both the events and the online community. If you have any questions related to the project itself, please contact cqcnational@synovate.com or call us on 020 3059 5284.

These initiatives are supplementary to the formal consultation process, which you can find out more about at http://www.cqc.org.uk/consultation/enforcement_policy-1.aspx. The closing date for the consultation is 16th January 2009.

I hope that you are able to participate and look forward to receiving your input.

Yours faithfully




Cynthia Bower

Chief Executive, Care Quality Commission

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