In 2016/17 we completed our comprehensive inspection and ratings programme, giving us a robust baseline of quality across health and social care.

Our inspection programme

We completed first ratings inspections across all our main sectors – NHS trusts, adult social care services, GP practices, out-of-hours care, urgent care, NHS 111, and the independent healthcare sector – of all services registered at the start of the programme. We also completed our annual programme of dental inspections.

Ratings*

Our ratings enable us to measure improvement in the quality of care and to highlight where services may not be improving or where care is deteriorating. Since we started rating, as at 31 March 2017 we have rated a total of 23,379 adult social care locations, 600 NHS and independent healthcare locations and trusts (including mental health) and 7,192 GP practices.

Other achievements from 2016/17

We have also:

• improved the efficiency of our registration process to make it faster, more streamlined and a more effective barrier to poor providers.
• consulted with members of the public, people who use services and their carers, providers and our stakeholders to help shape and develop plans for our next phase of regulation.
• published updated assessment frameworks, registration guidance for learning disability services and further detail on how we will monitor, inspect and rate NHS providers.
• appointed a Chief Digital Officer to improve our information technology systems and the ease with which the public can access our data and inspection findings.
• established a robust assessment and recruitment process with the number of inspection staff in post remaining consistently above 90 per cent throughout the year.
• taken enforcement action 1,910 times to hold providers to account where we find they are putting people at risk of poor care, investing in more training for enforcement staff and improving our enforcement recording processes.