26 May - Mental Health Network webinar

This week’s guest was Jemima Burnage, Director of Mental Health at the CQC, for a session on inspections post-pandemic. Jemima advised the group about some senior-level CQC personnel changes and explained that royal assent has been given regarding oversight of ICSs and local authorities.

With the Health and Care Bill given royal assent, the CQC is developing an early methodology, which will be piloted in June. There has been significant stakeholder engagement regarding system intention and oversight, including co-production.

She said a single assessment framework is being developed for use across all sectors, designed to deliver the strategy regarding people and communities and embrace smarter regulation on data and insight. The five key questions will remain. The key lines of enquiry will be replaced with six evidence categories: experiences of care, feedback from staff and leaders, feedback from partners and providers, observation, processes and outcomes of care. ‘I’ and ‘we’ quality statements have been developed and there will also be sector-specific evidence categories.

She added that the CQC will not return to routine frequency-based inspections based on ratings. In the new framework, more attention will be focused on mental health and LD services, due to the inherent risk, and the CQC will continue to do second opinion doctor visits in terms of the treatment plans of detained patients. The CQC continue to do well led and core inspections and will respond to risk, follow up after concerns, focus on areas where it will improve market access and prioritise unrated locations.

Also overheard during this week’s webinar:

“I would like to share good practice of a lead inspector sharing a draft report to all inspectors with a WhatsApp group for comments. One emerging issue is estates, with challenges including a lack of capital and a lack of opportunity for board action, along with equality and diversity reporting, where I feel a thematic review and clear focus would be beneficial, as currently there is a lack of evidence of improvement.”

“Data must be key going forward, especially in the context of system reviews. The approach to data has improved significantly in recent years, but there is still a significant opportunity to be more cost efficient in inspection by better and more focused data collection and analysis.”

“I’d like to express my support of the focus on outcomes. Elements of the mental health data set from 2005 such as housing and employment must be taken into account when considering outcomes, along with equity and ensuring people have better lives whilst also meeting targets.”

These meetings are by invitation only. For further details, visit our events page.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about these webinars, please contact: events@good-governance.org.uk