Complaints now matter to the CQC…

The December e-newsetter from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has just arrived in our inbox. The leading item is entitled ‘Complaints Matter’ and is introduced as follows:

“Our new report ‘Complaints matter’ concludes there is wide variation in complaint handling and much more could be done to encourage an open culture where concerns are welcomed and learned from. We want to hear about poor care because we use this information when we inspect services and we are also particularly interested in how well providers handle complaints and concerns to promote improvement.”

The Foreword to the Complaints Matter report emphasises the culture change at the CQC:

“CQC’s new approach to inspection, with this strong focus on complaints, has just begun and there is a distance to go before we are able to offer a clear and comprehensive picture of complaints handling across all the sectors we inspect.
We take complaints seriously – and we expect providers to do so too. All our new inspection reports will describe complaints handling. Poor practice will be found and acted on. Good practice will be shared.”

This all seems encouraging, but you do stop to wonder what happened under the CQC’s ‘old’ approach to inspection. In fact, Rescare knows that the family carers of people with learning disabilities, worried about the services being provided for their relatives, often struggled to have their concerns heard and complaints satisfactorily investigated.

For information on the CQC’s new complaint-handling procedures and its policy on complaints and whistle-blowing, and for a link to a downloadable PDF of the ‘Complaints Matter’ report, visit the CQC website.