CQC key lines of enquiry
It’s likely that you’re already aware of the care regulator’s key lines of enquiry. However, familiarising yourself with them again is never going to hurt. The way that your care home is assessed will revolve around five key areas:
- The safety of your care home
- How effective your care home is – such as abiding by care legislation
- How caring your care home is
- Responsiveness of your care home – which includes end-of-life care and how personalised your care plans are
- How well-led your care home is – this looks at the management of your care home
If you think you could use a refresher on these guidelines, then you can access them here.
Infection prevention in care homes
Many care homes have managed extremely well and have prevented coronavirus from coming into their service, protecting countless residents and staff. Others have been successful in containing coronavirus after a resident or members of staff has unfortunately caught it.
The CQC is playing close attention to care homes’ infection prevention and control plans in light of the pandemic. So you’ll want to read up on their guidance for doing this and know your plan inside out.
You can read up on the CQC’s guidance on infection prevention and control here.
How prepared is your care home for a CQC visit?
The advice we give all of our clients is to try to stay up to date with the CQC and government news and advice. You’ll want to be prepared by looking ahead and planning. Prepare all the necessary plans and actions in place for when the CQC calls or visits. When the CQC do come to inspect your care home, try to be as transparent as you can with them. Be open about when things have gone wrong in the past, but then also include what you learnt. Include how you have put the necessary precautions in place to prevent such an incident from happening again.
It’s good practice always to be ready for a visit, so when the time comes, your home will be on its best form. We recommend reading the CQC publication on making the most out of your inspection, which you can access here.
An inspection from the CQC doesn’t have to be scary and a good way to ensure this is to stay on top of important announcements from the CQC.
If you require more tailored advice on preparing for a CQC inspection, then book a free 15-minute 121 with us.