We have been informed by the CQC that practice visits using the new single assessment framework will commence from 13 May 2024.
The CQC’s key message is that they will not change inspections and will not request significant new evidence. The exception to this is that inspectors will check that labs used by practices are MHRA registered. If labs are producing work on site, the practice must also be MHRA registered.
Additionally, The CQC will check that practices performing facial aesthetics procedures that fall under the regulated activities (e.g. Threadlifts) have detailed this on their Statement of Purpose, with consent recorded and team members adequately trained.
Key updates in iComply
We created a new Compliance Report for our dental compliance service, iComply. This was done in preparation for the updated CQC single assessment framework. The new report, New CQC Report 2024 (England), shows Quality Statements and Key Questions, highlighting iComply activities for each.
We recommend that members become familiar with the Compliance Report. It will give you important information on how well you are following each new Quality Statement.
Quality Statements Overview
The five key questions (SAFE, EFFECTIVE, CARING, RESPONSIVE and WELL-LED) will still be used to assess dental practice compliance. The new single assessment framework will replace old key lines of enquiries (KLOEs) with new Quality Statements under specific headings.
Quality Statements are the commitments that practices must live up to. Expressed as We Statements, they show what is needed to deliver high-quality, person-centred care.
For example, under the key question – SAFE, two of the new Quality Statements are:
- Learning Culture
We have a proactive and positive culture of safety based on openness and honesty, in which concerns about safety are listened to, safety events are investigated and reported thoroughly, and lessons are learned to continually identify and embed good practices. - Safeguarding
We work with people to understand what being safe means to them as well as with our partners on the best way to achieve this. We concentrate on improving people’s lives while protecting their right to live in safety, free from bullying, harassment, abuse, discrimination, avoidable harm, and neglect, and we make sure we share concerns quickly and appropriately.
Whilst the single assessment framework applies to all healthcare providers and is already in place for some, one key difference of note between how it will work for dental compliance, compared to other healthcare services such as GPs, is that there will be no score, or overall rating provided.
Instead, with dental practices being classed as a ‘non-rated service’, the CQC will assess the Quality Statements against the regulations mapped to them, and will provide one of two outcomes:
- ‘Regulations met’, or
- ‘Not all regulations met’
If any of the Quality Statements have been judged as ‘not all regulations met’, then the corresponding Key Question will also be judged the same.
To make a judgement against each Quality Statement, the CQC will consider the evidence categories listed below:
- People’s experience of health and care services
- Feedback from staff and leaders
- Feedback from partners
- Processes
However, not all evidence categories will be looked at for every Quality Statement. A full list of all 33 Quality Statements with their corresponding evidence categories can be found here.
The roll out across the dental sector will start gradually to enable the CQC to monitor the effectiveness of it, with any learnings taken forward to improve and evolve the inspection regime as necessary. The initial focus will be on practices that have not yet been inspected/assessed, unless the CQC need to act responsively, for example, on the back of a concern.
Following an inspection, the judgements, along with the inspectors’ findings and comments, will still be published via a report, although the format of this will change. Historically, the report was presented as a PDF document, however, moving forward the report will be placed directly on the CQC website to improve accessibility to it (although the option to download, print, and share it will still be available).
As mentioned earlier, although the framework for CQC inspections is changing, the evidence they will be using to make a judgement against a Quality Statement will remain the same as they have looked at historically. iComply members should therefore not deviate from what they have been doing to date and should continue to work through their annual cycle.