Developing our future strategy

Published: 30 September 2020 Page last updated: 12 May 2022

As part of how we’re developing our next strategy we are today sharing our latest thinking on a range of key areas. The document is a product of our engagement so far and presents emerging themes that we want to explore and refine ahead of a formal consultation in January.

What we’re sharing today is built on four central and interdependent themes that determine the changes we want to make to how we regulate. Running throughout each theme is an ambition to improve people’s care by looking at health and care systems, and how they’re working together to reduce inequalities.

  • PEOPLE: We want to be an advocate for change, ensuring our regulation is driven by what people expect and need from services, rather than how providers want to deliver them. We want to regulate to improve people’s experience so they move easily between different services.
  • SMART: We want to be smarter in how we regulate, with an ambition to provide an up-to-date, consistent, and accurate picture of the quality of care in a service and in a local area.
  • SAFE: We want all services to promote strong safety cultures. This includes transparency and openness that takes learning seriously – both when things go right and when things go wrong, with an overall vision and philosophy of achieving zero avoidable harm.
  • IMPROVE: We want to play a much more active role to ensure services improve.

In our engagement over the next two months we’ll explore what each of these areas mean in detail as part of an open conversation about the future direction of CQC.

Read more about each theme in a new blog from our Chief Executive, Ian Trenholm.