Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the (a) condition of and (b) quality of care in care homes.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. Its remit is to monitor, inspect, assess and regulate service providers to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and publish what it finds, including performance ratings to help people choose care. Where CQC find poor care, they will use their enforcement powers.

While CQC’s remit does not extend to directly supporting providers to improve, CQC has developed a new strategy to accelerate improvement for health and social care services. CQC will use their unique position to spotlight priority areas that need to improve and enable access to support where it is needed most. CQC do this by strengthening relationships with services, people who use them, and their partners across health and care.