Who are the CQC?

You may have noticed that we display a very important purple and white logo on our Jayne Taylor Aesthetics website that belongs to the CQC (Care Quality Commission). We are often asked who they are and, more importantly, what they actually do, so we thought we would tell you a little bit about them and how we work with them to keep you safe.

The CQC was established by Parliament in April 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England. They make sure that the public is provided with “safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care”, and they encourage the services that they inspect, to improve.

The CQC describe their role as:

• To register care providers
• To monitor, inspect and rate services
• To take action to protect people who use services
• To speak with an independent voice, publishing their views on major quality issues in health and social care

Through their work they:

• Protect the rights of vulnerable people, including those restricted under the Mental Health Act
• Listen to and act on people’s experiences
• Involve the public and people who receive care
• Work with other organisations and public groups

The CQC describe their values as:

Excellence – being a high-performing organisation

Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect

Integrity – doing the right thing

Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best

The CQC uses care providers registration to assess whether a provider is able to meet a number of legal requirements, which include quality and safety standards. Registration with the CQC indicates that a healthcare provider is expected to deliver care and treatments of a high standard. The CQC physically inspect thousands of services every year. They inspect NHS and private hospitals, GP surgeries, residential and nursing homes and independent clinics, like Jayne Taylor Aesthetics. In order to form an opinion and produce a report, they also speak to patients, relatives, if appropriate, local professionals and staff. If the local authority have been involved with the provider, they will also maintain regular contact with them too.

We work very hard at Jayne Taylor Aesthetics to meet and maintain the standards required by the CQC. We constantly examine our practice, we ensure we have policies in place that support our services, we audit our practice and we pay attention to what our patients tell us. We also take safety very seriously in clinic and make sure it is at the heart of everything we do. Inspections by the CQC are highly anticipated, and preparation in the form of evidence collection is ongoing as part of our day-to-day practice.

When the CQC make the decision to inspect a provider, they send in a team of inspectors to the service. Usually over one or two days, depending upon the size of the service, and they ask 5 fundamental questions. They are:

1. Is the service safe?
2. Is the service effective?
3. Is the service caring?
4. Is the service responsive to people’s needs?
5. Is the service well-led?

These questions are then broken down into another set of questions which are called key lines of enquiries. These questions help the CQC to decide which areas to focus on specifically. They will gather information and observe the service and staff in practice. They will review records and examine policies, and once the inspection is complete, they will take the time to produce a detailed report along with an overall rating for the provider. The provider does have the opportunity to clarify any factual inaccuracies, and the report is then published on the CQC website for the public to view.

The ratings that the CQC can award are:

• Outstanding
• Good
• Requires Improvement
• Inadequate

If you visit the CQC website on www.cqc.org.uk and search for Jayne Taylor Aesthetics, a message stating “We have not inspected this service yet” will be displayed as we are registered with the CQC but have not had the experience of an inspection…yet! Watch this space.

If you have any questions about our registration or you would like to talk to the CQC about us, please do.  You can email them on their website via an online contact form under the heading ‘Contact us‘, or you can telephone them at 03000616161.