CQC inspectors to ‘Mum test’ care homes

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has confirmed its new system of rating care homes in England will incorporate the ‘Mum test’. Inspectors will be asked to consider whether they would be happy for a loved one to use care services before deciding on a rating.   

Specialist teams, including trained members of the public who have been dubbed ‘Experts by Experience’, will inspect services, unannounced, against a series of ‘user-centred’ criteria – are they safe, caring, effective, responsive to their needs, and well-led.

CQC will then rate these services as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate, so that the public has clear information to help them make choices about their care.

CQC has issued one handbook covering its regulation of residential adult social care (care homes, with and without nursing) and another covering its regulation of community adult social care (including services that care for people in their own homes).

Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at the Care Quality Commission said: “Our new regulatory model has people right at its heart. We will ask the questions that matter most to people who use services, listen to their views, take action to protect them, and provide them with clear, reliable and accessible information about the quality of their services.”

Care and Support Minister, Norman Lamb called the move a “turning point” for the care sector. He said: “Gone is the tick-box exercise for inspecting care homes and home care – now we are listening to the views of the people who rely on these services and have tougher checks to make sure they are getting safe, compassionate care from staff who are supported by good managers. And at the end of it the service will be given a rating that’s easy to understand, so families will know if it is up to scratch.”

The inspection overhaul comes after the CQC was condemned by MPs last year as “not fit for purpose” after the deaths of babies in a Cumbria hospital that was run by a trust the CQC had given a clean bill of health.

Talking about the changes on BBC Breakfast this morning, Andrea Sutcliffe said the CQC is rebuilding its reputation: “I'd say that the reputation of the CQC as we are speaking now in 2014 is improving. What we have recognised is that some of the ways we have been working needed to absolutely improve.”

Handbooks for adult social care can be downloaded from the CQC’s website here.