This page is being updated. However, our latest consultations are detailed below.
RCGP Scotland consultations
Scotland Responses
RCGP UK consultations
CQC 'Our next phase of regulation' consultation 2
The CQC recently published its consultation on the next phase of regulation outlining proposals for the next programme of inspections and ratings.
CQC is looking to a more intelligence-driven approach to regulation and consider all of the information it holds on the provider annually (including the provider information collection, GP Insight tool and information from other stakeholders) to assess whether the current ratings are still valid.
We hope that the proposed approach will reduce the regulatory and administrative burden on members and allow practices to demonstrate the excellent work they do around patient care and quality.
We will be responding to the consultation and would welcome your views to feed in to our response. You are able to respond to the consultation individually however we feel that a collective College response would be more influential. We would ask for your comments by 21 July and you can email them to us at policy@rcgp.org.uk with 'CQC next phase of regulation consultation' in the subject line.
Summary of proposals
- Registration. CQC proposes to register all organisations that are accountable for providing care. Providers that are currently registered will remain on the register but any related organisations will also have to be registered, eg. parent companies that are accountable for quality. There will be a new structure to the register and more detailed information will be collected including the provider’s regulatory history.
- Fees. CQC has stated that the overall cost of regulation will not increase as a result of this work.
- Complex providers. CQC proposes to have one relationship holder for each complex provider, including ACOs, MCPs and PACs, to coordinate across their providers with the aim of avoiding multiple requests for information. CQC will hold an annual internal meeting about the complex provider and their services to agree an inspection schedule – what to inspect? When to inspect? How to inspect?
- Monitoring. CQC intends to use several intelligence gathering tools, including GP Insight and a new Provider Information Collection (PIC) to allow inspectors to have a better understanding of the context of the practice. The PIC will be an online information collection of quantitative data and self-declarations which practices are encouraged to keep up to date throughout the year. The data will be reviewed annually by CQC to inform its regulatory planning review of the practice. This review will determine what action is taken. There will be a variety of regulatory intervention, including a desk based assessment, an announced inspection, an unannounced inspection, contact with a provider, working with other stakeholders or no action.
- Inspections. CQC will continue to address the five key questions and six population groups with comprehensive inspections for practices rated inadequate, requires improvement or practices not previously inspected. More focused inspections will take place for practices rated good or outstanding and the frequency of inspections for these practices will reduce to between three to five years, subject to information gathered through monitoring. There will also be greater flexibility around inspection notice periods, including short notices and unannounced visits.
- Reports. Reports will be shorter, less repetitive and more accessible for the public. A summary report will be produced with more detailed ‘evidence tables’. CQC has also committed to publishing 90% of reports within 50 days.
- Ratings. In future, CQC intends to have an overall rating for safe, caring and well-led, and only effective and responsive will continue to receive a rating for each population group.
Contact us
We are keen for members to input into our consultation responses. To comment on any of the consultations here, or to let us know about a consultation we may have missed, please contact responses@rcgp.org.uk.