Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the Care Quality Commission's finding that safety is one of the key areas where residential care homes are struggling to improve; and what steps he plans to take to address that finding.

Whilst 79% of inspected care services are good or outstanding there is more to do to address variation. This is why we introduced tougher inspections of care services and provided an additional £2 billion to the sector. The Department is also working with organisations from across the adult social care sector to implement Quality Matters – a commitment to improving quality.

The Government announced that we will be consulting on the future of social care. The consultation will set out options to improve the social care system to put it on a more secure financial footing and address issues related to the quality of care and variation in practice.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) makes sure adult social care providers meet fundamental standards of quality and safety. The CQC reports that 75% of inspected providers are rated as good for ‘safety’.

The CQC can take action if it identifies aspects of care which need to improve. The CQC can: issue requirement notices or warning notices to set out what improvements must be made and by when; make changes to a care provider's registration to limit what they may do; place a provider in special measures; and, issue cautions, fines or prosecute cases where people are harmed or placed in danger of harm.

The CQC reports that 76% of inspected providers are rated as outstanding or good for ‘well-led’. The Department is working closely with our delivery partners, Skills for Care, to improve the level of skills of the adult social care workforce which includes supporting the development of leadership at all levels. The Skills for Care Leadership programme equips leaders and managers at all levels to positively embrace service transformation as part of an integrated, whole-system view of person-centred care.