Covid-19
Has the CQC protected the most vulnerable?
The UK care sector is under perhaps the greatest pressure it has ever faced. Mass claims, a rise in inquests and employer liability issues are all proving to be very real threats. Michelle Penn, an occupational disease claims expert with law firm BLM, considers whether some care providers might refuse to pay Care Quality Commission fees if they feel the organisation has failed to maintain its role during the pandemic
It is no secret that care homes have been badly impacted by the Covid-19 crisis. According to Office for National Statistics data, 14,355 deaths involving Covid-19 occurred in care homes between 10 April to 2 October in England alone. Accordingly, media coverage into the
treatment of care homes by the government has been widespread and less than favourable. The BBC Panorama episode, The Forgotten Frontline, highlighted the struggles that care homes faced in protecting vulnerable residents at the height of the pandemic, bringing about serious questions on the government’s approach to care homes. But what about the all-important Care
Quality Commission’s (CQC) response? As an independent regulator of health and adult social care in England, with a self-declared purpose to ‘make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care’, it
holds the register of care providers and ensures they meet clear legal requirements through monitoring, inspecting and rating services. Legally, care providers must pay
significant annual fees to the CQC for these services - with the 2019/20 bands ranging from £313 to £15,710 - dependent on the maximum number of residents that can be accommodated at each location – and care homes expect certain levels of protection in return. Should payment of these fees have
been suspended during the period when levels of protection were also suspended?
What key measures has the CQC taken? At various stages throughout the pandemic, the CQC made changes to its ways of working to cope with the crisis. Just as the crisis began to seriously impact the UK, on 16 March there was an immediate cessation of routine inspections to allow services to focus on more urgent safety
matters and protect staff. However, registered service providers
were assured the CQC would use its intelligence and information to continue to take action when it was needed. During this extended period of cessation of inspections, the CQC were monitoring social care under its Emergency Support Framework (ESF), providing telephone support to providers. During the period 2 March to 31 May,
the CQC confirmed it received a total of 2,612 calls as a result of adult social care staff raising concerns, an increase of 55 per cent compared to the same period the year before. Of those 2,612 calls, 26 per cent related to lack of PPE or other infection control products, 32 per cent related to concerns about how infection control or social distancing was being practiced and 4 per cent related to quality of care being impacted by Covid-19. Despite the high volume of calls and
concerns raised, only 17 physical adult social care inspections were conducted
Once the CQC inspection programme resumes in full, it will be revealing to see the volume of further failings that are uncovered and how long they have been allowed to happen
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www.thecarehomeenvironment.com• December 2020
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