Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is a requirement of (a) the CQC monitoring process and (b) another source for each care home to have a registered manager on site; what information his Department holds on the number of registered managers in England; and whether the training of registered managers is monitored and assessed by the CQC.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care providers in England. Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the 2008 Act) all providers of regulated activities, including National Health Service and independent providers, have to register with the CQC and meet a set of requirements of safety and quality.

The 2008 Act, together with the CQC (Registration) Regulations 2009 require that all providers must have in place one or more registered managers for its regulated activities. The regulations set out some exceptions to this (for example if the provider is a health service body, or a lone individual who meets certain criteria) but in practice, the vast majority of registered providers in the social care sector must have a registered manager.

Registered managers have legal responsibilities in relation to their position. The person appointed as registered manager should be in day-to-day charge of carrying on the regulated activity or activities they apply to be registered for. The regulations do not specify that the registered manager must be on the premises at all times, but in all cases, the registered manager must be able to demonstrate how they will manage the day-to-day running of the regulated activities at each of their locations.

The CQC has supplied the following information about the registered manager regulations:

As of 5 February 2015 there are 16,426 locations which provide the regulated activity of accommodation for people who require nursing or personal care. The provider is required to have a registered manager in place for each of these locations. 14,758 locations have a registered manager in place and 1,668 locations do not.

The CQC inspectors ensure that where a manager is not in place the provider complies with Regulation 14 Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, Notice of absence, to ensure the safe management of the home while a manager is absence or in the process of being appointed. The expectation is that providers will take timely and strenuous action to appoint a manager who is suitably competent and qualified to apply for and secure registration. If providers fail to do so, in addition to enforcement action which can include the issue of a Fixed Penalty Notice or prosecution CQC will limit the rating when judging the “Well led” question as part of CQC’s new approach to inspection and ratings.

The requirements state that registered managers must have the necessary qualifications, skills and experience to manage the carrying on of the regulated activity. The CQC assesses against the requirements in Regulation 7(2) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 when it registers providers and managers (by asking about qualification, induction and ongoing training programmes, for example), as well as monitoring continuing compliance with this requirement through inspection. In CQC’s Key Lines of Enquiry, CQC inspectors are prompted to look at how providers are making sure that staffing levels have the right mix of skills, competencies, qualifications, experience and knowledge, to meet people’s individual needs, to determine whether or not a care home provider is delivering safe care.