The CQC has issued clarity on their upcoming assessments of primary dental services, and announced they will begin on 13 May.
In an update on its website, CQC said services may be informed of the assessment prior to the date they come, or they may also carry out a responsive assessment before that ‘if we have information that indicates risk’.
The assessments will not be rated, but they will be judged to have either met regulations or not met all regulations.
Reports will be published, as before, but will follow a new format. Each evidence category will be assessed to say either ‘regulations met’ or ‘not all regulations met’.
These will then be used to inform the quality statements they sit under to conclude either ‘regulations met indicates the provider is compliant with all regulations related to that quality statement’, or ‘not all regulations met indicates that the provider has breached one or more regulations related to that quality statement’.
Last week, the British Dental Association (BDA), said that although the processes were changing, ‘most things are expected to stay the same as far as dentistry is concerned’.
It said the ‘slight’ change to the reports would be ‘more relevant’.
‘Reports have been shortened in recent years, but this further alteration will make them more user friendly and is a change we have been requesting for some time.’
It added: ‘The inspection system will still run on the well-known five key questions – is the practice, safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led?
‘There will be more emphasis on “the voice of people using services” which will include asking staff for views on working at the practice. To help meet this, we will be developing survey templates for members to use.’
Earlier this month CQC said it was delaying assessments of ICSs.
