The Care Quality Commission (CQC) are assessing local authorities across the UK to understand how they're meeting their statutory duties under the Care Act (2014).
This includes looking at how local authorities commission Adult Social Care services and how they work with partners in their area to provide person centred care and support to individuals, their carers, and circles of support.
If you have any questions about the CQC assessment, email: ascinformation@bristol.gov.uk
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England.
The CQC assesses local authorities across England to ensure they are fulfilling their statutory duties under the Care Act 2014.
The CQC will carry out a comprehensive assessment of Bristol's delivery of regulated care functions, as set out in Part 1 of the the Care Act 2014.
As part of the Single Assessment Framework, the CQC will be asking us 5 five key questions, and under each key question, a set of quality statements, or 'We Statements'.
Quality statements are the commitments that we as a local authority with statutory duties under the Care Act should live up to.
The 5 key questions are the things they ask of all health and social care services. They ask if our services are:
- safe
- effective
- caring
- responsive to people's needs
- well-led
Once they've assessed these areas, they will write a report and score against the statements. This will lead to an overall rating and the report will be published.
The CQC will give us a rating to say how we are meeting our statutory duties. The ratings are:
- Outstanding, which means very good
- Good
- Requires improvement, which means it needs to get better
- Inadequate, which means very poor
More information about how the CQC will carry out the assessment process can be found on the CQC website.
We received our initial notification from the CQC on 24 June 2024. With this, the CQC requested that we send information to them within 3 weeks.
The information we needed to send them included information about our services, and pdf our self-assessment(1.20 MB) .
The CQC have received our information and are considering the evidence that relates to the 12 months preceding the start of the assessment. This is the period we're being assessed on.
We have now received our second notification, which confirms when the on-site inspection will be carried out. The CQC will arrive at Bristol City Hall week commencing 20 January 2025.
In December 2023 we invited the Local Government Association (LGA) to carry out a two-day 'peer review challenge' in preparation for the CQC assessment.
The exercise mirrored as far as possible the way the CQC will carry out their assessment, which helped colleagues to know what to expect and feel prepared for the 'real thing'.
Following the review, the LGA produced a report which:
- provided feedback
- identified good practice and opportunities for development or improvement: pdf Interprofessional Practice and Competency Framework(1.32 MB)
As a result, pdf 8 pieces of work that were implemented to improve the way we provide services for those accessing support from Bristol(413 KB) .
You can also find pdf our vision for adult social care(508 KB) .
During the on-site visit, the CQC assessment team will interview a range of people, including:
- people who draw on our care and support
- carers and circles of support
- colleagues in adult social care
- provider partners
Reasonable adjustments will be offered to those who need it.
The assessment team will also meet with:
- the Chief Executive and Leader of Bristol City Council
- our Executive Director of Adults and Communities
- our Director of Adult Social Care
As part of the information return, we will provide the names of 50 individuals from across ASC teams. CQC will pick 10 cases, and seek to speak with 6 individuals who have capacity and are willing to speak to them
If you're contacted by your social worker to see if you'd like to speak to the CQC, think about if you would be comfortable speaking about your experience or not.
If you decide you'd like to speak to the CQC, we encourage you to have open and honest conversations with them about your experience.
The CQC will not share your personal and identifiable information as part of their final report. hey report on what people tell them and themes of information only, to make their judgements.
If you have any questions or concerns, email: ascinformation@bristol.gov.uk
You can find out pdf more about the process in our leaflet(339 KB) .
As system partners and providers of social care for Bristol City Council, you'll be aware that part of our Information Return to the CQC included information about our partnerships across the city, providers services and any associated data.
If you're invited by the CQC assessment team to participate in an interview or a drop-in group, we ask that you prioritise any engagement with the CQC.
Your feedback will enable them to make a judgement in relation to the quality statements as stated above.
The CQC assessment team may ask you questions about:
- your role
- how you and your teams work in partnership with Bristol City Council
- the systems in place to ensure smooth and consistent care and support
They will also be interested in what works well and what leads to good outcomes for people. They will also seek to find out from you where you think improvements could be made.
The CQC assessment team will ask if you're happy to participate and for your name and role, but no names will be used in the feedback or reports, as they report generally on what people tell them and themes of information only, to make their judgements.
If you're contacted by the CQC, we encourage you to have open and honest conversations with them.
If you have any questions or concerns, email: ascinformation@bristol.gov.uk