Assisting care providers across the United Kingdom remaining compliant with current regulations and promoting ‘best practices’ within their services

Our CQC style inspections are designed to reflect and replicate the actual inspections carried out by the Care Quality Commission.

We look at your service with the same eyes that a CQC inspector would and will give you an objective review of the quality of care delivered by your care setting.

Our audit is designed around the CQC’s 5 Key Lines of Enquiry and, unlike many other independent auditors out there, instead of looking only at what CQC might expect a service to do in order to remain compliant with current regulations, we go the extra mile and give you advice and ideas on how to really make your service and care delivered stand out from the crowd.

  • Safe

Is your care organisation safe?

  • Caring
Is the service provided to your clients caring?
  • Responsive
Is your organisation responsive to issues and client needs?
  • Effective
Are your systems and processes effective?
  • Well-led
Is your team being directed and supported effectively?

Why do you need to be prepared for your CQC inspection?

As you may be aware already, a bad CQC inspection can have serious consequences on the service and on the smoothness of it’s operation. 

In a worst case scenario, CQC may even look at de-registering a particular service and taking legal action against the registered provider, if you are in this situation already, you may want to check our Crisis Management and Interim Management services.

This is a very extreme example that can be avoided by being proactive as a provider and ensuring that adequate and robust quality auditing systems are in place and reviewed regularly.

Here are a few ways in which your business may be affected as a result of a ‘not so good’ CQC inspection:

  • Poor occupancy
  • Poor staff morale
  • High staff turnover
  • Difficult to recruit skilled staff
  • Difficulty in attracting clients
  • Greater investments required
  • Difficult to attract investments
  • Higher operational costs
  • Legal actions or even closure
  • Forced to sell prematurely

What are the benefits of having an external audit of your service?

The list is plentiful… here are a few examples

  • Objective, unbiased view
  • Identification of issues you may not even be aware of
  • Expert advice & support from a group of specialists
  • Prevention of issues from escalating
  • Possibility of addressing any non-compliance before is too late
  • Evidence of a proactive approach and robust auditing to the CQC

Step 1

When carrying out a CQC style inspection you can expect us to audit the following areas of your service:

  • General quality of the service
  • Safety of clients
  • Procedures related to health and safety
  • Procedures related to infection control
  • Planning of care and it’s delivery to clients
  • Procedures related to safe management of medicines
  • Systems and processes related to clients’ nutrition and hydration
  • Systems and processes related to catering
  • Systems and processes related to staffing
  • Documentation and record keeping

Step 2

Once we have completed our audit which usually takes around two working days (depending on the size of the service and on the number of consultants deployed). We will then review the information gathered and produce a comprehensive report based on the CQC’s 5 Key Lines of Enquiry.

Step 3

When your report is compiled, you will receive a draft sample that you can check for factual accuracy. Once this step is completed, we will finalise the report and give your service a rating.

Step 4

You can opt to have a S.M.A.R.T. action plan produced for your organisation to work on and you may want to opt to have us assisting you with the implementation of the systems and processes outlined in the plan. Unlike other care consulting firms, we can promptly assist you with any issues related to staffing and training as we already have a large infrastructure in these departments, meaning that less time will be wasted on finding the right company and compliance will be achieved sooner.