Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is making an assessment of the financial sustainability of Four Seasons Health Care under section 55 of the Care Act 2014; and whether the CQC has had meetings with (a) ministers and officials of his Department and (b) finance officers and other senior managers of Four Seasons Health Care to discuss that provider's financial position.

Four Seasons Healthcare is one of the names included in the Market Oversight scheme that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has run since 6 April 2015. Whilst the CQC is unable to comment on individual providers in the scheme due to commercial sensitivity, the CQC can nevertheless confirm that it is operating the regime in line with the published guidance ‘Market Oversight of difficult to replace providers of adult social care’ that can be found on the CQC’s website at:

http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/market-oversight-adult-social-care