Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will bring forward proposals to require all owners and managers of care homes to give a copy of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 to care workers on appointment.

There are no plans to require care homes owners and managers to give a copy of Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 to all new employees.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It monitors, inspects and regulates services against fundamental standards of quality and safety below which care should never fall.

One of the fundamental standards covers good governance and requires that a provider seeks and acts on feedback from relevant persons, including staff, for the purpose of continually evaluating and improving such services. A further fundamental standard requires that employees receive appropriate support, training and professional development.

One of the areas the CQC inspections consider is how the service demonstrates good management and leadership. The CQC Key Lines of Enquiry state that a provider should have policies in place to investigate whistleblowing concerns and that any investigations are thorough, questioning and objective. The service should also record and learn from these investigations so such incidents are less likely to happen again.