Regulating health and social care for offenders
Prison services that provide healthcare are required to register with CQC under our new system.
The following services generally require registration with CQC if they provide health care in:
- prisons;
- immigration removal centres;
- secure training centres.
Health care provided in police custody suites may also require registration.
Find out more about who needs to register:
We monitor, inspect and report on these services in their own right, for example if they have inpatient facilities.
They may also be included within our checks of a broader provider, for example if they operate like a community health service.
Our partners
In regulating providers of offender health and social care, we work closely with:
- Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP)
- Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)
- Ofsted
We have a memorandum of understanding with HMIP which sets out how we ensure that our checks do not duplicate.
MoU between CQC and HMIP (PDF, 242KB, opens in new window)
Annex 1 Priorities for joint work in 2010/11 (PDF, 96KB, opens in new window)
Annex 2 Information sharing agreement (PDF, 105KB, opens in new window)
For prison health care, we are able to map all of our regulations to:
- HMIP’s Expectations
- HMIP’s inspection methodology
This means that providers in prisons should be able to demonstrate to us that they comply with regulations through the same information that they use to demonstrate they meet HMIP Expectations. If HMIP’s checks indicate satisfactory performance, we will not normally need further checks.
Find out more
The Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody has launched a new website that provides guidance on policy and best practice across the sector. It aims to bring about a continuing and sustained reduction in the rate of deaths in all forms of state custody across England and Wales.
The new website works as a resource for those working within difference custodial sectors, allowing them to share good practice and learn how to prevent and reduce the number of deaths in custody. Visit the website here.
