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Cynthia Bower's position as the £200k p.a. head of the Care Quality Commission is compromised by the independent investigation into Mid Staffordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
While hundreds of patients were needlessly dying, neglected and abused in filthy conditions, Bower was "providing strategic oversight and leadership", "creating strong commissioning to ensure clinical excellence", and "leading service improvements for patients". (Source: NHS West Midlands, 3rd July 2006)
There are two worlds of social care: on top is Quangoworld - the bloated, bullying, bureaucracy - and below is the real world where the work gets done. Barely a day passes without some new edict or initiative from the policy elite demanding the time and attention of care managers to be diverted from the job of running good basic services for the people who depend on them. Good care homes are closing, crushed and sucked dry by the weight of expensive and parasitic organisations.
CQC have issued another consultation, this time about how they are going to assess 'quality' in 2010/11. They've already given us their new 'essential standards' and all providers of adult social care must now re-register with CQC. What was good enough for their predecessor commission, CSCI, is no longer good enough for CQC. More work for care managers.
The Care Quality Commission launched its 'State of Care' report on Wednesday (Feb 10th) from the top of Millbank Tower. Obscured by the plethora of statistics and self-congratulation are the stories of good, small care homes closing and people losing their homes, their friends, their trusted carers and , in some cases, their lives.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) can no longer lay claim to being an arm's length regulator after the admission in The Times this week (16.2.10) by former Commission Chair, Barbara Young, that after only five months in the job she realised that the Government did not want her brand of 'rugged independence'.
On the You and Yours phone-in last week, it was suggested that care home inspections should include a report from the relatives' and residents' group in each care home. Having myself proposed this to the regulators and to the Relatives and Residents Association about four years ago - without response - I am, of course, very much in favour of the idea.
