The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has withdrawn a request for the CQC to make a proposal on the future of ICS assessments, delaying them again.
The CQC said this was due to the uncertainty following the recent government announcement that NHS England will be brought back into DHSC and that ICBs will be facing cuts.
It added that work will pause ‘for at least six months’ on this, but it would continue to engage with DHSC and will review plans based on the new government reforms and the upcoming 10-year health plan.
The CQC was given the duty to review and assess ICSs under the Health and Care Act 2022, which established the systems. It had developed a methodology for this assessment, which was tested in pilots in Dorset and Birmingham and Solihull.
Inspections were due to start in April 2024, but the rollout was paused following discussions with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), and then again in May due to the general election.
They were then paused again in October 2024 for six months following the independent review into the CQC by Dr Penny Dash.
In an update on its website, CQC said: ‘Following uncertainty as a result of the recent government announcement that NHS England will be brought back under the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) along with reductions planned for ICBs, DHSC has withdrawn its request for a proposal from CQC on the future of ICS assessment activity.
‘This work will pause for at least six months which will allow us to focus on our 4 priorities and 5 foundational improvements. We will continue to engage with DHSC during this period and will review our plans along with the new government reforms including the 10-year health plan.’
It comes as an independent IT review into the CQC found that failed organisational transformation had been to blame for widespread IT failures at the regulator.
The review by IT expert Peter Gill was commissioned to look at poorly performing IT systems that damaged the CQC’s ability to roll out the single assessment framework.
It found that between 2019 to 2024, the CQC had spent £99m on transformation, including its core IT system and a broader change to a new operating model.
The report said: ‘The primary cause of the IT failure was a failed organisational transformation. The attempt to change core processes, structures, roles, and technology simultaneously was ambitious but not unprecedented. The CQC’s efforts to create a Target Operating Model (TOM) were not accepted by the organisation.
‘The Single Assessment Framework (SAF) became a simplistic label for the failure. Problems arose from decisions around delivering SAF and implementing it with a technical solution. Despite issues, staff are using SAF off-platform effectively.’
It added: ‘When organisational transformation fails, IT also fails as it underpins core processes. Unclear or unstable processes make designing technology like hitting a moving target. The IT issues are a visible artifact of the broader failure.’
The review called for urgent short-term IT changes to address ‘immediate staff pain points’ and enable the CQC to function ‘effectively’.
