Annual report and accounts 2023/2024

Remuneration of the Chair and non-executive Board members

Remuneration for non-executive Board members is determined by the Department of Health and Social Care based on a commitment of 2 to 3 days a month. The ARAC chair has an additional time commitment, which is reflected in higher remuneration.

There are no provisions in place to compensate for the early termination or the payment of a bonus in respect of non-executive Board members.

The Chairman and non-executive Board members are also reimbursed for expenses incurred in fulfilling their commitments to CQC. Expenses are grossed up to account for the tax and national insurance due, in accordance with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) rules.

Non-executive Board members are not eligible for pension contributions or performance-related pay because of their employment with CQC.

Figure 6: Emoluments for the Chairman and non-executive Board members (subject to audit)

Notes:

¹ Benefits in kind (taxable) relate to taxable expenses incurred by members in the fulfilment of their commitments to CQC.

² Ian Dilks OBE was appointed as CQC’s new chair on 1 April 2022, full-year equivalent salary £60-65k.

³ Christine Asbury was appointed 1 June 2023, full-year equivalent salary £5-10k.

⁴ Charmion Pears was appointed 1 February 2024, full-year equivalent salary £10-15k.

⁵ Dr Mark Chakravarty was appointed 1 June 2023, full-year equivalent salary £5-10k.

⁶ Jora Gill’s appointment expired 31 May 2023, full-year equivalent salary £5-10k.

⁷ Stephen Marston chose not to receive remuneration for his role to 31 July 2023, full-year equivalent salary £5-10k from 1 August 2023.

⁸ Mark Saxton’s appointment expired 31 July 2023, full-year equivalent salary £5-10k.

⁹ Dr Ali Hasan’s role was as an Associate non-Executive Director during the period.

¹⁰ Professor David Croisdale-Appleby was appointed 1 June 2023, full-year equivalent salary £5-10k.

Payments to independent members of Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (subject to audit)

Independent members of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) are paid fees on a per meeting basis and are reimbursed for expenses incurred in fulfilling their commitments to CQC.

Figure 7: Remuneration of independent members of ARAC

Notes:

¹ Benefits in kind (taxable) relate to taxable expenses incurred by members in the fulfilment of their commitments to CQC.

² Jeremy Boss received enhanced remuneration as interim Chair of ARAC.

Remuneration and pension benefits of the Executive team

Remuneration

The chief executive and members of the Executive team are employed on CQC’s terms and conditions under permanent employment contracts.

The remuneration of the chief executive and members of the Executive team was set by the Remuneration Committee and is reviewed annually within the scope of the national pay and grading scale applicable to Arms Length Bodies.

For the chief executive and Executive team, early termination, other than for gross misconduct (where no termination payments are made), is covered by their contractual entitlement under CQC’s redundancy policy. Contracts of Executive team members include 6 months’ notice and termination payments are only made in appropriate circumstances. They may also be able to access the NHS pension scheme arrangements for early retirement, depending on age and scheme membership. Any amounts disclosed as compensation for loss of office are also included in our people report.

Salary includes gross salary, overtime, recruitment and retention allowances and any other allowance to the extent that it is subject to UK taxation. It does not include employer pension contributions and the cash equivalent transfer value (CETV) of pensions.

No performance pay, bonus or compensation for loss of office were paid to any member of the Executive team, or former members, during 2023/24.

The monetary value of benefits in kind covers any payments or other benefits provided by CQC that are treated by HMRC as a taxable emolument. CQC operates several non-subsidised salary sacrifice schemes, including lease cars and home electronic vouchers, that are open to all permanent CQC staff, including members of the Executive team. The benefits-in-kind arising from these arrangements are included in this table, but it should be noted that the costs of the scheme are paid for by the employee.

Figure 8: Remuneration of the Executive team (subject to audit)

Notes:

¹ Benefits in kind represent the monetary value of benefits, treated by HMRC as a taxable emolument, provided by CQC. Ian Trenholm, Kirsty Shaw and Dr Rosie Benneyworth had lease cars provided through a non-subsidised salary sacrifice scheme that is open to all permanent CQC staff including members of ET.

² All pension-related benefits calculated as the real increase in pension multiplied by 20 plus the real increase in any lump sum less the contributions made by the individual. The real increase exclude increases due to inflation or any increases or decreases due to a transfer of pension rights.

³ Ian Trenholm resigned as Chief Executive on 30 June 2024.

⁴ Pension-related benefits for Dr Sean O’Kelly are £nil as he chose not to be covered by the pension arrangements during the reporting year.

⁵ Dr Sean O’Kelly was appointed on 20 June 2022, full-year equivalent salary £180-185k.

⁶ Kirsty Shaw resigned on 31 August 2022, full-year equivalent salary £140-145k.

⁷ Dr Rosie Benneyworth resigned on 31 July 2022, full-year equivalent salary £160-165k.

⁸ Prof. Edward Baker resigned on 27 April 2022, full-year equivalent salary £180-185k.

Amounts payable to third party for services as a senior executive

James Bullion was seconded to CQC in the role of Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care from 5 June 2023. Total costs of £205k for 2023/24 (including salary and employer’s costs) were recharged to CQC by Norfolk County Council.

Pension benefits

Pension benefits were provided through the NHS pension scheme for members who chose to contribute. Pension benefits at 31 March 2024 may include amounts transferred from previous employment, while the real increase reflects only the proportion of the time in post if the employee was not employed by CQC for the whole year.

Figure 9: Pension benefits of the chief executive and Executive team (subject to audit)

Notes:

¹ Ian Trenholm resigned as Chief Executive on 30 June 2024.

² Dr Sean O’Kelly chose not to be covered by the pension arrangements during the reporting year.

³ Taking account of inflation, the real increase in pensions at age 60 funded by the employer has decreased in real terms.

Cash equivalent transfer values

A CETV is the actuarially assessed capitalised value of the pension scheme benefits accrued by a member at a particular point in time. The benefits valued are the member’s accrued benefits and any contingent spouse’s pension payable from the scheme.

A CETV is a payment made by a pension scheme or arrangement to secure pension benefits in another pension scheme or arrangement when the member leaves a scheme and chooses to transfer the benefits accrued in their former scheme. The pension figures shown relate to the benefits that the individual has accrued as a consequence of their total membership of the pension scheme, not just their service in a senior capacity to which disclosure applies.

The CETV figure and the other pension details include the value of any pension benefits in another scheme or arrangement that the individual has transferred to the NHS Pension Scheme. They also include any additional pension benefit accrued to the member as a result of their purchasing additional years of pension service in the scheme at their own cost. CETVs are calculated within the guidelines and framework prescribed by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.

Real increase in CETV

This reflects the increase in CETV effectively funded by the employer. It does not include the increase in accrued pension due to inflation or contributions paid by the employee (including the value of any benefits transferred from another pension scheme or arrangement).

Fair pay (subject to audit)

Reporting bodies are required to disclose the relationship between the remuneration of the highest paid director in their organisation and the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile remuneration of the organisation’s employees. Total remuneration of the employee at the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile is further broken down to disclose the salary component.

The annualised banded remuneration of the highest paid director in CQC during 2023/24 was £210k to £215k (2022/23: £200k to £205k). The relationship of the highest paid director to the remuneration of the organisation’s workforce is disclosed in figure 10 as a pay ratio:

Figure 10: Pay ratios

2023/24:

2022/23:

The median and 75th percentile ratios have remained constant compared with 2022/23. However, the 25th percentile ratio has reduced due to the rise in staff pay out pacing the increase in the rate of the highest paid director as detailed in figure 11.

Figure 11: percentage change in salary

In 2023/24 no individual had annualised equivalent remuneration more than the highest paid director (compared with 4 in 2022/23). The calculation is based on the full-time equivalent employees of the reporting entity at the reporting period end date, on an annualised basis. Remuneration ranged from £20-25k to £200-205k (compared with £20-25k to £220-225k in 2022/23).

Total remuneration includes salary, non-consolidated performance-related pay, benefits in kind but not severance payments. It does not include employer pension contributions and the CETV of pensions.

People report

Employee costs and numbers (subject to audit)

Employee costs

There is a marked increase in our employee costs in 2023/24 due to an increase in contingent labour to deliver transformation activities, an annual pay award and an increase in substantive establishment following the transfer of the Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation programme to CQC during the financial year.

Figure 12: Employee costs

Figure 13: Other employee costs

Average number of employees

Figure 14: Average number of whole-time equivalent employees in 2023/24

‘Other’ includes agency staff and inward secondments from other organisations. It does not include bank inspectors, specialist advisors, commissioners or SOADs that are paid per session.

The actual number of directly employed whole-time equivalents as at 31 March 2024 was 3,176 (2,906 at 31 March 2023).

Staff turnover during 2023/24 was 10.7% (compared with 15.6% in 2022/23). Turnover has decreased as we carried out restructures to support the implementation of our new strategy and operating model. Staff turnover is not subject to audit.

Pension information

The principal pension scheme for CQC employees is the NHS Pension Scheme and is used for automatic enrolment. Those not eligible to join the NHS Pension Scheme are enrolled with the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST). Due to legacy arrangements CQC also held active membership in 13 LGPSs

Automatic enrolment applies to all employees under a standard contract of employment with CQC as well as Mental Health Act Reviewers, SOADs and all employees on casual or zero-hour contracts. All employees retain the option to opt out at any time.

NHS Pension Scheme

Past and present employees are covered by the provisions of the NHS Pension Schemes. Details of the benefits payable and rules of the schemes can be found on the NHS Pensions website. Both the 1995/2008 and 2015 schemes are accounted for, and the scheme liability valued, as a single combined scheme. Both are unfunded defined benefit schemes that cover NHS employers, GP practices and other bodies, allowed under the direction of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care in England and Wales. They are not designed to be run in a way that would enable NHS bodies to identify their share of the underlying scheme assets and liabilities. Therefore, each scheme is accounted for as if it were a defined contribution scheme: the cost to the NHS body of participating in each scheme is taken as equal to the contributions payable to that scheme for the accounting period.

To avoid the defined benefit obligations recognised in the financial statements differing materially from those that would be determined at the reporting date by a formal actuarial valuation, the FReM requires that “the period between formal valuations shall be 4 years, with approximate assessments in intervening years”. An outline of these follows:

a) Accounting valuation

A valuation of scheme liability is carried out annually by the scheme actuary (currently the Government Actuary’s Department) as at the end of the reporting period. This uses an actuarial assessment for the previous accounting period in conjunction with updated membership and financial data for the current reporting period and is accepted as providing suitably robust figures for financial reporting purposes. The valuation of the scheme liability as at 31 March 2024, is based on valuation data as 31 March 2023, updated to 31 March 2024 with summary global member and accounting data. In undertaking this actuarial assessment, the methodology prescribed in International Accounting Standard (IAS) 19, relevant FReM interpretations, and the discount rate prescribed by HM Treasury have also been used.

The latest assessment of the liabilities of the scheme is contained in the Statement by the Actuary, which forms part of the annual NHS Pension Scheme Annual Report and Accounts. These accounts can be viewed on the NHS Pensions website and are published annually. Copies can also be obtained from The Stationery Office.

b) Full actuarial (funding) valuation

The purpose of this valuation is to assess the level of liability in respect of the benefits due under the schemes (taking into account recent demographic experience), and to recommend contribution rates payable by employees and employers.

The latest actuarial valuation undertaken for the NHS Pension Scheme was completed as at 31 March 2020. The results of this valuation set the employer contribution rate payable from 1 April 2024 to 23.7% of pensionable pay. The core cost cap cost of the scheme was calculated to be outside the 3% cost cap corridor as at 31 March 2020. However, when the wider economic situation was taken into account through the economic cost cap cost of the scheme, the cost cap corridor was not similarly breached. As a result, there was no impact on the member benefit structure or contribution rates.

Employer contributions for employees in the NHS Pension Scheme was 20.68% of each active member’s pensionable pay during 2023/24 (20.68% in 2022/23). This rate includes an amount charged to cover the cost of scheme administration equating to 0.08% of pensionable pay.

For early retirements, other than those due to ill health, the additional pension liabilities are not funded by the scheme. The full amount of the liability for the additional costs charged to expenditure was £nil (£nil in 2022/23).

Local government pension schemes

LGPSs are primarily open to employees in local government, but also to those who work in associated organisations. The scheme is managed locally and invests pension funds within the framework of regulations provided by government. Details of the benefits payable and rules of the schemes are on the LGPS website at www.lgpsmember.org.

CQC inherited active membership in 17 local government schemes as part of legacy arrangements of predecessor organisations on formation. CQC membership in 5 of the original schemes has now ceased and at 31 March 2024, active membership was held in 12 schemes.

All remaining schemes are closed to new CQC employees. Under the projected unit method, the current service cost will increase as the members of the scheme approach retirement.

Employer contributions for 2023/24, based on a percentage of payroll costs only, were £2,397k (£2,287k in 2022/23), at rates ranging between 0% and 49.2% (0% and 49.2% in 2022/23). Employer contributions relating to the largest scheme, Teesside Pension Fund, were £1,940k (£2,035k in 2022/23) at a rate of 17.9% (17.9% in 2022/23).

During 2023/24 indexed cash sums were levied in addition to a percentage of payroll costs as part of a strategy to reduce fund deficits. In total, £278k (£1,002k in 2022/23) was paid to 2 of the 13 remaining pension funds, with amounts ranging from £20k to £258k (£14k to £515k in 2022/23). No additional sums were paid in respect of the largest scheme, Teesside Pension Fund.

National Employment Savings Trust

The NEST is a qualifying pension scheme established by law to support automatic enrolment.

Employer contributions based on a percentage of payroll costs totalled £51k for 2023/24 (£84k in 2022/23) at a rate of 3% (3% in 2022/23).

Exit packages (subject to audit)

To support the implementation of our strategy and operating model, we carried out management of change restructures in our Intelligence and Operations directorates.

Management of change is an established process allowing individual colleagues to evaluate their skill sets against future organisational needs and, if appropriate, to take voluntary redundancy. The process also allows for a skills audit and includes opportunities for retraining and support in the new organisation structure. These restructures have led to further exit packages being recognised in 2023/24 and have been subject to approval by the Department of Health and Social Care’s Governance and Assurance Committee (GAC).

Redundancy and other departure costs are paid in accordance with CQC’s terms and conditions approved by the GAC. Where early retirements have been agreed, the additional costs are met by CQC and not by the individual pension scheme. Ill-health retirement costs are met by the pension scheme and are not included in the exit packages table below.

Figure 15 shows the total cost of exit packages agreed and accounted for in 2023/24 (2022/23 comparative figures are also presented) and are inclusive of employers national insurance contributions. Exit costs of £1,983k were paid in 2023/24, the year of departure (£4,191k in 2022/23)

Figure 15: Exit costs – staff numbers and related costs

None of the exit packages relate to individuals named in the Remuneration report (none in 2022/23).

Figure 16: Analysis of other departures

No non-contractual payments (£nil) were made to individuals where the payment value was more than 12 months of their annual salary.

Off-payroll engagements

As part of the review of the tax arrangements of public sector appointees, we are required to publish (through the Department of Health and Social Care) information about the number of off-payroll engagements that are in place where individual costs exceed £245 per day.

Figure 17: Number of off-payroll engagements at 31 March 2024

Figure 18 shows all off-payroll appointments engaged at any point between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 that were for more than £245 per day.

Figure 18: Number of off-payroll engagements during 2023/24

Figure 19 shows any off-payroll engagements of board members, and/or, senior officials with significant financial responsibility, between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

Figure 19: Off-payroll board members or senior officials

We are committed to building in-house capacity, but we recognise that, with a significant element of our activity being project based, with peaks and troughs in requirements, making the best use of the temporary labour market is essential. Many of the workstreams within our change programme require specialist input on a temporary basis, and it is not always cost-effective to permanently recruit such skills. In the year, we have seen an increase in our off-payroll engagements, which have enabled us to drive forward our transformation programme.

All existing engagements at 31 March 2024 have received approval from the Department of Health and Social Care. We continue to improve our assurance processes so that we categorise all engagements in line with best practice and to ensure that we remain compliant with HMRC’s off-payroll working rules.

People plan

Our People Plan 2022 to 2025 sets our strategic vision to ensure our workforce develops the skills, confidence, and competence to deliver, feels valued, and contributes to organisational success. We aim for a collaborative, motivated, and diverse team, that drives performance and exemplifies our shared values.

Our Plan prioritises 5 components, enabling everyone to perform at their best:

• Diversity and inclusion
• Employee engagement and insights
• Leadership and change
• People experiences and insights
• Values and culture

People engagement, policies and recognition

Listening to our staff is crucial to delivering our People Plan. As such, we engage widely to safeguard a range of views informing our decision-making and enabling support for everyone to perform at their best. This is in areas such as leadership, change and future strategic direction, policy, as well as diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing.

People survey 2024

Our annual survey is part of our engagement approach and was open from January to February 2024. Colleagues were asked for feedback on all aspects of working for CQC and 2,278 colleagues (78%) responded. The survey’s findings provided a snapshot of the mood of our organisation.

The responses showed an overall engagement score (an index based on colleague views about what it’s like to work for our organisation) of 52%, a decrease of 12 percentage points compared with our people survey in 2021.

Summary findings:

• some improvement in colleagues feeling they are treated fairly at work
• some improvements in how people feel about career progression
• colleagues feeling a bit more informed about changes at a high level but remaining worried about details.

However, concerns from colleagues related to:

• change not being implemented effectively in the organisation
• support from senior leaders
• not listening enough to colleagues’ views
• not acting on concerns raised about the way things are done in the organisation
• the values and behaviours of the chief executive officer and Executive team
• the safety to challenge the way things are done in the organisation.

Our current leadership team is committed to improving operational performance and wellbeing, rebuilding trust, and increasing our credibility. We will review progress using regular surveys.

To further ensure we hear the voices of all colleagues, we recognise UNISON, the Royal College of Nursing, the Public and Commercial Services Union, Unite, and Prospect for collective bargaining and consultation. Representatives from across the unions make up our Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee (JNCC). CQC’s leaders work regularly with the JNCC on a range of people matters.

We also have 5 internal staff equality networks for: disability, race, gender, carers, and LGBT+. Our equality network chairs have protected time to deliver activities, such as providing feedback during people policy development and evaluation.

People policies

We regularly review our people management policies to make sure they meet best practice guidelines, reflect changes to the culture of CQC, and enable us to support all colleagues to develop. Our policies were also updated in line with any legislative changes, ensuring legal compliance and adherence to Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) code of practice.

During the process, we consulted with the trade unions, and staff equality networks to enhance fairness and staff experiences. We also used an equality impact assessment (EIA) framework to facilitate the Public Sector Equality Duty.

Policies updated were Code of Conduct, Dignity and Respect at Work, Strike Action, FTSU and People Change. To support effective application, senior HR Advisors provided individual coaching, tailored advice, and guidance, supplemented with briefings and presentations at team meetings for managers.

Recognition

To nurture a culture of recognition that engages, motivates, and inspires us to deliver excellence, colleagues can use tools to acknowledge good work and success.

In 2023/24, 997 colleagues (18.4% of the organisation) received 1 or more vouchers in recognition of demonstrating our organisational Values and Success Profile behaviours.

Diversity and inclusion

A healthy, engaged workforce is key to our success. Our People Plan facilitates this through diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing, setting a standard for good practice as the health and social care regulator.

During the year, we worked to refresh our 3-year inclusive future strategy with a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy 2024 to 2027, incorporating our 2023/24 Mental Health and Wellbeing action plan.

This will use data from the 2023/24 People Survey and input from equality staff networks, trade unions, and directorate equity, diversity, and inclusion co-ordinators. The strategy will also incorporate people recommendations from the Listening, learning and responding to concerns review (LLRC).

Key recommendations are improving race equality in the workplace, the FTSU model, including replacing the 2 vacant posts from 2022/23, and our workplace adjustments model.

We have started to work on these recommendations:

• our Board began learning in 2023/2024 on race and institutional racism
• there are now 3 FTSU Guardians, supported by a team of approximately 20 Ambassadors
• our workplace adjustments offer has been evaluated, with feedback from staff equality networks, and trade unions to enhance our approach.

Further to the LLRC evaluation, we measure our strategic progress on race and disability workplace equality using NHS-developed measures that help health and social care organisations compare the workplace experiences of disabled and ethnic minority staff with staff who do not share these protected characteristics. In January 2024, we published this information through:

• Workforce Disability Equality Standard: Annual Report 2023
• Workforce Race Equality Standard report: Annual Report 2023

We report using these equality standards to be transparent and accountable for providing a fair and inclusive environment in the workplace. This will continue as part of our refreshed EDI strategy.

Equality profiles

Figure 20 shows the distribution of male and female employees in CQC for each grade as of 31 March 2024.

Figure 20: CQC equality profiles as at 31 March 2024

The following data tables are our equality and diversity profiles as a % of our overall workforce. The data is taken from our Electronic Staff Record (ESR) which is our HR and payroll system and is used across the NHS.

Age

• 18-24: 1.2%
• 25-34: 15.1%
• 35-49: 45.0%
• 50-64: : 36.2%
• 65+: 2.5%

Disability

• No: 81.3%
• Yes: 12.2%
• Not stated: 6.5%

Ethnic origin

• White: 78.4%
• Ethnic minority groups: 15.4%
• Not stated: 6.2%

Gender

• Female: 72.5%
• Male: 27.5%

Sexual orientation

• Heterosexual or straight: 79.4%
• LGB+: 7%
• Not stated: 13.6%

Religious belief

• Atheism: 16.2%
• Buddhism: 0.5%
• Christianity: 41.0%
• Hinduism: 1.9%
• Islam: 3.2%
• Judaism: 0.3%
• Sikhism: 1.1%
• Other: 6.7%
• Not stated: 29.1%

Gender pay gap

As of 31 March 2024, the split in CQC was 2,308 female employees to 875 male employees, and this was closely replicated across the quartile data (31 March 2024: female 72.5%, male 27.5%).

The data shows no pay gap in median pay at CQC, as employees are paid within salary bands, and the rate of pay is virtually the same across all quartiles. When comparing mean (average) hourly pay, the mean hourly pay for female employees is 0.13% lower than for male employees, but when comparing median pay, female pay is 3.5% higher than male. This means the pay gap has decreased slightly in mean pay.

• Mean pay gap – ordinary pay: 0.13%
• Median pay gap – ordinary pay: -3.51%
• Mean pay gap – bonus pay in the 12 months ending 31 March 2024: n/a
• Median pay gap – bonus pay in the 12 months to 31 March 2024: n/a

The proportion of male and female employees paid a bonus in the 12 months to 31 March 2024:

• Male: n/a
• Female: n/a

Proportion of male and female employees in each quartile:

Ethnicity pay gap

As at 31 March 2024, CQC’s workforce comprised 3,183 employees. Of these, 489 (15.4%) were from Ethnic Minority groups and 2,496 (78.4%) identified as White.

These figures show there is no ethnicity pay gap in CQC, and that employees from ethnic minority groups are not facing a pay disadvantage. This trend is consistent across both mean and median rates, indicating a positive state of ethnic pay equity.

Our pay gap continues to be small, and we therefore plan to monitor it and implement any measures needed if there are any changes.

• Mean pay gap – ordinary pay: -1.15%
• Median pay gap – ordinary pay: -0.24%
• Mean pay gap – bonus pay in the 12 months ending 31 March 2024: n/a
• Median pay gap – bonus pay in the 12 months to 31 March 2024: n/a

The proportion of ethnic minorities and white employees paid a bonus in the 12 months to 31 March 2024:

• Ethnic minorities: n/a
• White: n/a

Proportion of ethnic minorities and white employees in each quartile:

Trade union facility time

We work in partnership with trade union representatives on all matters affecting our people. JNCC meetings were held every quarter, comprising representatives from our People Directorate, senior leadership team and trade union representatives from CQC alongside external national union officers. This forum allows discussion, consultation and negotiation on employment-related matters.

Our people are permitted to have protected time to engage in appropriate trade union activities (facility time).

Relevant union officials:

• Number of employees who were relevant union officials during the relevant period: 36
• Full-time equivalent employee number: 35.1

Percentage of time spent on facility time:

Percentage of time spent on facility time:

Paid trade union activities:

Time spent on paid trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours calculated as: (Total hours spent on paid trade union activities by relevant union officials during the relevant period ÷ total paid facility time hours) x 100: 14.9%

Sickness absence

During 2023/24, for each absent employee:

• the average number of long-term days of sickness was 12 days (10 days in 2022/23)
• the average number of short-term days of sickness was 5 days (4 days in 2022/23).

Health and safety

This provides an overview of key health, safety, and wellbeing updates within CQC during 2023/2024.

Infection prevention and control: risk assessment: during the latter part of 2023/24, we removed the requirement to complete the infection prevention and control (IPC) risk assessment prior to inspections. Inspection teams were instructed to integrate the IPC assessment requirements into the generic inspection risk assessment.

Personal safety app: a new personal safety app was introduced, replacing the previous Safe Hub app. This new app is more user-friendly and alerts line managers if assistance is needed. It is available to all colleagues who visit high-risk areas alone.

Risk assessments: all directorate risk assessments were reviewed, updated, and are now accessible on our intranet homepage – stay safe at work.

Flu vaccination programme: the flu vaccination programme was re-launched but saw a decrease in participation, with only 41% of colleagues registering their vaccination in Cygnum from both the voucher request and GP vaccinations. Efforts are underway to boost uptake through collaboration with trade union representatives and enhanced communication strategies.

Work-related stress: the corporate work-related stress risk assessment was implemented across the organisation. Directors and deputy directors have been tasked with discussing these assessments with their teams and identifying any additional necessary controls. Stress risk assessment briefings have been conducted for managers in NCSC.

Incident reporting: in 2023/24, there were 149 reported incidents:

• 29 incidents of harassment and intimidation - 65 incidents of verbal abuse/threats and 14 incidents of violence or aggression
• 9 incidents of slips, trips and falls
• 2 incidents of road traffic accidents
• 2 incidents of ill health
• 28 incidents of near miss reports, struck by moving object, striking against stationary object, contact with harmful substances and ‘other type of incident’.

Actions taken in response to reported abusive incidents include enforcing a zero-tolerance policy, which is clearly communicated to callers through a recorded message while waiting for their call to be answered in our Contact Centre. Managers promptly follow up on incidents to provide support and assess whether updates are required to the individual’s workplace passport. For repeat offenders, processes are discussed with NCSC/Operations, which may include restricting contact to email or redirecting calls to voicemail, and only responding to new issues raised. Colleagues have access to counselling services if needed.

Annual health and safety audits are conducted to identify and mitigate any building risks, and staff experiencing ill health are supported through ergonomic equipment and guidance on working practices. We have adopted a varied approach, focusing on prevention, timely intervention, and support for affected employees. Policies and tools, such as the personal safety app and ergonomic equipment, demonstrate a commitment to employee wellbeing and the creation of a safer, more supportive working environment.

Workstation and display screen equipment: the Health and Safety team has taken active measures in response to the increased time spent at computers and the rise in back-to-back MS Teams meetings, which have led to colleagues experiencing health issues due to insufficient screen breaks. They have provided additional ergonomic equipment to 340 colleagues and offered advice and guidance to many more. The equipment distributed includes adjustable desks, specialist chairs, ergonomic mice, and other supplementary display screen equipment accessories.

Expenditure on consultancy

There was no spend on consultancy services, as defined by HM Treasury during 2023/24 (£100k in 2022/23).