Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to strengthen the role of the Care Quality Commission in addressing (1) residential care home visits being blocked following a complaint being raised, and (2) evictions from residential care homes following a complaint being raised.

Blocking visits or evicting a patient following a complaint being raised would be a breach of existing regulations and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is clear that appropriate action will be taken if it finds a provider has failed in its responsibilities. Any such cases shared with the CQC will be investigated as part of its ongoing monitoring of providers. The CQC reinforces the principle that care homes must enable, rather than restrict, visiting and blanket bans on visiting are unacceptable. The CQC seeks assurances from care home providers on how visits are enabled and verifies this information during inspections.

Although the CQC is not able to address individual complaints, it can direct people to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which can investigate such complaints in all adult care services.