A fresh start
Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care at the Care Quality Commission.
In my first week blog I wrote that my feet had barely touched the ground. I now realise that this was a gentle prelude to the frantic activity of my second week…
…Which started with the launch of A Fresh Start for the Inspection and Regulation of Adult Social Care.
In the spotlight
Interviews appeared in The Independent and Community Care last Monday, followed by a whirlwind of media appearances the next day — Daybreak, BBC TVand radio interviews, and an hour-long phone-in on BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours. My friends and family saw or heard of me more in one day than they had done for months!
Reaction has been generally positive, with some helpful challenges. The media focused on the ideas relating to hidden cameras and mystery shoppers. These are real issues that people have raised with us and I’m keen to engage in open discussions about them — the vigorous debate we have already generated shows why we need to have the conversation.
Read this blog from Beth Britton as one example.
The family test
Moving away from these ideas, to me, what is much more important for us is the Mum’s Test. The idea that, for every service we look at, we think “is this good enough for my Mum?” or any other relevant member of our family or indeed ourselves. It’s about truly placing people using services at the centre of all we do.
Launching documents is one thing, putting plans into practice is quite another! More on this as the weeks go by.
On Board
Tuesday evening started the second phase of the week’s activity — the Board. At the Board dinner on Tuesday evening our guests from Ofsted, head teacher Rachel de Souza and SCIE provided food for thought on how we can learn from and work better with our partners.
Then my first official board meeting — I am very used to holding these meetings in public but this was my first experience of live-streaming. You can watch the recording here and my report is at 45 minutes. Feedback from my Dad is positive — but then he may be a bit biased!
Conference
I broke all records after the meeting ended to catch the train to Harrogate for the National Children’s and Adults Social Care Conference. This is the big event in the social care calendar and more than 1,000 people gathered to debate the issues of the day — perfect timing for us to be talking about A Fresh Start!
It’s fair to say that CQC had a good conference — lots of interest on the stand, loads of helpful discussions and a really positive buzz at the session David Behan and I ran. And to top it all, our team An Inspector Calls (Alan Rosenbach and I, the new Chief Social Worker for Adults Lyn Romeo and three colleagues from NICE) came second in the very competitive quiz night and I won two prizes in the raffle!
Orchid View
Then there was the fourth phase of the week with the conclusion of the inquest into the deaths of 19 people at Orchid View in West Sussex, — the coroner’s verdict was that five of the deaths had been caused by neglect. The coroner also criticised the role of CQC. We issued a statementand responded to media interview requests on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. If you get a chance, listen to the interview at 8.10am on the Today programme to hear from Lisa Martin, the brave woman who blew the whistle on what was happening there.
I will be looking into how we handled our involvement in Orchid View, to see what lessons can be learnt that can help inform our new approach to inspection and regulation.
So, another week of contrasts with good progress made but a sharp and poignant reminder of the importance of our role in the regulation of adult social care services and support for people who use those services. Who knows what week three will bring?
Originally published at www.cqc.org.uk.
