The CQC is planning to launch a ‘revamped’ assessment framework in mid-2026, following a consultation and pilot.
Speaking to primary care leaders at the Pulse PCN Newcastle event yesterday (17 September), co-located with Pulse 365 Live, Professor Bola Owolabi, chief inspector of primary and community care at CQC, said the consultation would launch later this year.
This is with a ‘view to starting to pilot some of the early forms of the newly revamped assessment framework in the new year, and with a fair wind to actually properly rolling it out towards the middle of next year.’
She added that the consultation would look at improving the assessment framework’s content, but also making sure that the way the CQC rates services is ‘meaningful, that it’s transparent and that actually people can trust what we say’.
‘We are looking at the assessment framework,’ she said. ‘We’ve heard you loud and clear. I’ve had a lot to say, along with all other GPs about the assessment framework that we currently use and how it has to be refined and. It has to be updated, to be more streamlined, and to be meaningful, and to be reflective of what people actually do in the practice.’
‘My request is, please respond to the consultation,’ she added.
The CQC has been under scrutiny over the past year, with a review, led by now NHS England chair Dr Penny Dash, finding ‘significant failings’ in the CQC.
It recommended that it rebuild its expertise, concluding: ‘There is an urgent need to appoint highly regarded senior clinicians as chief inspector of hospitals and chief inspector of primary and community care.’
Professor Owolabi added that she had joined the CQC eight weeks ago as she believes the CQC is a ‘beacon of hope’ and that the return to leadership with subject matter expertise is ‘something that has happened already’ with the appointment of its four chief inspectors, including GP Professor Owolabi as primary care inspector.
‘My hope, actually is that with this renewed, revamped [CQC] leadership team that we will be able to be responsive to what people and communities need, but also importantly to what you need as the people at the front line who are delivering care,’ she said.
It comes as the national investigation into maternity care is to focus on 14 trusts, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) revealed earlier this week.
A version of this story was first published on our sister title Pulse PCN.
