Social care regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has announced it is to inspect 250 domiciliary care services providers from next April. Inspections will focus on the respect, care and welfare of people who receive care services in their own homes. The support given by providers to the frontline staff providing the care will also be scrutinised by the inspectors. They will be joined by professional experts and so-called “experts by experience” i.e. former home care service users. These inspections will run alongside the CQC’s planned reviews of home care services. As well as producing a report on each provider, the Commission will compile a national report focusing on the findings on quality and safety in the inspections. Cynthia Bower, chief executive of the CQC, said: “Home care is one of the most difficult areas of care to monitor. “Often the people who use home care services find themselves in vulnerable circumstances and the operation of home care is not as transparent as care in hospitals and other sectors because the interactions happen behind closed doors in people’s homes. That is why we want to focus on this sector of social care in this way.”
