The Health and Care Act 2022 puts the Care Quality Commission's (CQC) assurance of local authorities on a statutory footing. The new duty on the CQC to assess local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care (ASC) duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014 came into effect on 1 April 2023. Linked to this new duty is a power for the Secretary of State to intervene where, following assessment under the new duty, it is considered that a local authority is failing to meet their duties.
In March 2023, the CQC published the draft assessment framework. Five end to end pilots of the assessment process took place between July and early September 2023 in Lincolnshire, Nottingham City, Birmingham, North Lincolnshire and Suffolk councils. Their reports and indicative ratings were published on 24 November 2023. The CQC has undertaken an evaluation of the pilot process and we await their findings and final sign off from the Minister for the framework.
It is intended that all local authorities will be inspected over the next two years and the current plans are that the first tranche of 20 councils will be informed in December and on-site work to commence in February 2024 with a target completion date of 31 March 2024.
In August 2023, the Department for Health and Social Care published its framework for adult social care (ASC) intervention in local authorities. We will be developing the intervention support offer with our partners and this will be an iterative process as we intervention support offer with our partners and this will be an iterative process as we move through the first tranche of 20 councils. Please contact your regional CHIA for further information.
Documents and tools to support councils with implementation
We’ve produced a suite of documents and tools to help councils with the implementation of the CQC's new framework.
They are:
- Learning from the Care Quality Commission pilots for principal social workers - this publication summarises the experiences of PSWs involved in the pilots as part of a wider package of support.
- Adult social care assurance: A guide to the development of your adult social care assessment - this guide is designed to support councils as they prepare for CQC assessment. It is comprised of two parts. The first part provides an introduction and overview of self-assessment. While the second part is a workbook providing tools and templates which have been developed to support the self-assessment process.
- Presentations from our webinar 'Role of the Principal Social Worker' on 8 November 2023
- A toolkit to support councils to prepare for CQC assessment as it relates to unpaid carers
- Ten things to do now to prepare for CQC assurance around unpaid carers - this is a quick checklist focusing on local authority duties towards unpaid carers.
- Presentations from our webinar - Adult social care assurance: learning from the CQC pilots and the elected member perspective, 17 October 2023
- A range of resources, events, and support is available to portfolio holders or lead members for adult social care to help them with their roles.
Highlighted pages
The return of the regulator: What adult social care needs to know
We commissioned some rapid learning from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) pilots through interviews with five directors of adult social care.
Learning from the Care Quality Commission pilots for principal social workers
Principal social workers (PSWs) have a key role to play in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) local authority assessment process. We've commissioned this publication to summarise the experiences of PSWs involved in the pilots and help other PSWs to prepare.
Top tips for CQC assurance preparation
These nine top tips reflect the focus of activity that Partners in Care and Health believe will help all councils to maximise their preparation in the coming three months of 2023.
The Care Act 2014 and unpaid carers: A handy summary
A summary of the key principles of the Care Act 2014, setting out the universal and specific duties for councils in supporting unpaid carers.
What's the story? Using National Carer Data to develop your narrative for Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assurance, 8 November 2023
Download the presentation from this event.
Partners in Care and Health programme regional contacts
Contact details for our care and health improvement advisers