Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS hospital trusts are not placed in special measures.

The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) rigorous inspection regime means that the full picture of services at a particular provider is known and published, and if required, the provider knows what it must do to improve.

Importantly, if the Chief Inspector finds serious failures in quality of care and where there are concerns that existing leadership cannot make the necessary improvements without support, he can recommend that the trust be placed into Special Measures.

Poor care should not be tolerated and Special Measures ensures trusts receive a tailored package of support to enable them to improve.

The CQC uses a risk-assessment approach to inform the order in which providers are inspected. This means where there are concerns about a particular provider they are inspected as a priority, allowing action to be taken earlier.

Early intervention is important and these inspections allow the CQC to get a much more detailed picture in hospitals. If the Chief Inspector concludes that the care needs to improve, he can recommend Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority take action.

The NHS Trust Development Authority and Monitor oversee, manage performance and, in Monitor’s case for foundation trusts, regulate hospital trusts. Both organisations have a number of options at their disposal to support trusts if they have concerns about their performance before they reach the stage where Special Measures may be required.

In establishing NHS Improvement, we are bringing these two organisations together meaning all NHS providers will be able to access the same support and be subject to the same types of intervention. NHS Improvement will foster, nurture and share best practice. It will help to drive and support both urgent operational improvement at the frontline and the long term sustainability of the healthcare system.