Care resources “just too thin”

Unions are warning that the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the new regulatory body for health and social care in England, could be stretched to breaking point by staffing cuts, office closures and defective IT systems.

The commission takes over the mantle of three predecessor bodies. These include the Healthcare Commission, whose devastating report on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in March prompted calls for a public enquiry. The report found that between 400 and 1,200 more people died over three years at the Mid Staffordshire trust than would have been expected.

The CQC’s launch is supposed to mark a new stage in the drive for quality and safety in adult social care. But it has started work with a legacy of redundancy notices issued to 180 business support staff by the outgoing commissions, in preparation for plans for a remote processing centre operation in Newcastle.

Unions also fear that the commission will struggle to drive up standards with a budget 40% lower than the previous commissions.

Helga Pile, national officer for social services at the UNISON public services union, said: “We believe that inspectors are just too thin on the ground and this situation is made worse by cuts to support jobs.” She said that the cuts “lead to inspectors spending too much time on paperwork and too little time out in the field”.