Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what criteria the Care Quality Commission uses to determine the closure timeframe for a care home subsequent to a below standard rating and inadequate remedial action since that rating was given.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has provided the following response.

For urgent closures, the CQC’s enforcement policy is in line with the thresholds set out in the Health and Social Care Act 2008, Section 30 where there is a serious risk to a person’s life, health or well-being. The CQC must apply to a Justice of the Peace for an order cancelling the registration of a person as a service provider or manager in respect of a regulated activity.

Closures may also take place on a non-urgent basis. This may be related to the poor quality of a service and/or its lack of capacity or capability to improve. Where a service is rated Requires Improvement overall, but one of the CQC’s five key inspection domains (is the service Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-Led?) is rated Inadequate, the CQC will re-inspect the service within six months. If the service remains rated as Inadequate in any of the five key inspection domains, the service will enter Special Measures. This is the same process for a service rated overall as Inadequate, which enters Special Measures straight away.

For services in Special Measures, the CQC expects the provider to seek appropriate support to improve the quality of the service. The CQC may signpost the provider to improvement support agencies. The CQC will inspect the service again within six months of the date of publication of the inspection report placing it in Special Measures. The CQC will always prioritise and respond to risk, so may re-inspect at any time.

The maximum time for a service to be in Special Measures is usually no more than 12 months. If, at the end of that period, the service still has a rating of Inadequate in any of the five key inspection domains or overall, the CQC will decide whether to cancel or suspend its registration, or vary or impose conditions on its registration.