Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support retirement homes in maintaining continuity of care during staffing changes.

Regulation 18 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 states that providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), including residential care homes, must deploy “sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff to enable them to meet the needs of the people using the service at all times”. The CQC can take regulatory action if providers registered with them are in breach of any parts of this regulation, including if providers have an insufficient number of suitably qualified, skilled, and experienced persons deployed.