Care Quality Commission Publish Five-Year Strategy Discussion Paper

The document, titled Building on Strong Foundations, asks for views on how regulation can develop, as part of a consultation on a new five-year strategy.

The strategy, which will cover the period 2016-21, requires the CQC to become a “more efficient and effective” organisation.

To achieve this initial objective, the CQC has suggested it moves to a more “risk-based registration” system, in which lower risk applications and changes to registration are handled in a “more streamlined and proportionate way”.

More “responsive and tailored” inspections are also being mooted by the regulator. For example, this might involve inspecting services previously found to be “good” or “outstanding” quality less frequently, or less intensively than other services, said the CQC.