Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment has been undertaken of the effect on the earnings of people employed under the Experts by Experience programme of implementing the new Care Quality Commission contracts on 1 February 2016.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and adult social care in England. It is responsible for its own staffing requirements and decisions on contracts around the supplying of Experts by Experience for its inspections of providers. The CQC is not the employer of Experts by Experience and does not set rates of pay. The Experts by Experience service has been an outsourced service since its inception.

The CQC has advised that contracts were awarded on the basis of a formal procurement that focused on quality and value for money. Whilst negotiating the new Experts by Experience contracts, the CQC worked closely with suppliers to ensure that there was minimum impact on the individual earnings of existing Experts by Experience as well as on the rates for newly appointed Experts by Experience.

The CQC is aware of concerns amongst some Experts by Experience in relation to moving between organisations, including rates of pay, in order to continue participating in the work. However, the CQC’s decision to award these new contracts focussed on expanding the numbers of Experts by Experience involved in the CQC’s inspections, ensuring that the high quality contribution Experts by Experience have provided to date is maintained and delivering value for money.