What do I do if I am being investigated by the Care Quality Commission?

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England.

The CQC's role is to ensure that hospitals, care homes, dental and general practices and other care services in England provide people with safe, effective and high-quality care.

As published on their website, https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us they use their powers to:

• • Protect the service user from harm and make sure they receive care that meets the standards they have a right to expect.
  • Make sure services improve if the standard of care the facility provide has fallen below acceptable levels.
  • Hold care providers and managers to account for failures in how care is provided.

If the CQC find that there is a failing in any of the above, they have the following powers:

• • Using requirement notices or warning notices to set out what improvements the care provider must make and by when.
  • Making changes to a care provider's registration to limit what they may do, for example by imposing conditions for a given time.
  • Placing a provider in special measures, where we closely supervise the quality of care while working with other organisations to help them improve within set timescales.
  • Hold the care provider to account for their failings by:
  • issuing simple cautions
  • issuing fines
  • prosecuting cases where people are harmed or placed in danger of harm.

If you are being investigated by the CQC, please get in touch with our Crime and Regulatory team who would be happy to discuss how we can help.