Concerns flagged to CQC go months with no response because of backlogs, MPs told
The organisation’s new chief executive said staff have told him they believe a new IT system that was rolled out last spring is not fit for purpose.
Backlogs at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) mean some concerns being flagged to the watchdog are going months without a response, MPs have heard.
The organisation’s new chief executive said staff have told him they believe a new IT system that was rolled out last spring is not fit for purpose and preventing them from doing their job.
Sir Julian Hartley, who joined the CQC as chief executive last month, appeared in front of the Health and Social Care Committee on Wednesday alongside outgoing CQC chairman Ian Dilks.
The non-inquiry session explored what the regulator is doing to address the major shortfalls in the organisation.
It comes after a damning review by senior NHS leader Dr Penny Dash. Her final report, published in October, warned there is an “urgent need for a rapid turnaround” at the CQC owing to “significant failings” in how it works.
Sir Julian said: “The Dash review was very clear that poor operational performance is impacting our ability to ensure that health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care.
“I’m hugely focused on addressing those shortcomings in order to improve where we stand right now.”
Sir Julian also told MPs that clearing “backlogs of what we call notifications and information of concern” is a key priority for the CQC.
“These are both requirements of providers to notify us of major issues and incidents and changes, and it’s also the opportunity for people to contact the CQC with major issues of concern,” he added.
He estimates there are about 5,000 of these contacts that need responding to, and said they are being fast-tracked.
Labour MP Jen Craft highlighted the potential for “quite significant safeguarding issues around people flagging things”.
When asked what is the longest that people have to wait for a response, Sir Julian said: “Some of them do go back months.
“The oldest cases with no review – the first stage is a risk review – is 30th November 2023. The oldest cases with no action, 19 August 2024.”
Ms Craft asked: “Would that be someone has made a report of a concern, and they’ve not received a response since August?”
Sir Julian responded: “I believe so.”
Ms Craft added: “You can appreciate the level of shock I think we felt on that, and without understanding what that particular case entails, there could be a significant issue behind this.”
Mr Dilks told MPs there is a system in place to ensure the “most urgent” issues are dealt with.
He said: “We do have a very good triaging system to make sure that when queries come in or points come in, that the most urgent are dealt with, which would affect safeguarding, for example.
“And those are policies that we’ve refined over the last couple of years.”
However, Ms Craft pointed to “a potential for that to go very badly wrong”.
She said: “That’s the concern, isn’t it, that the triaging system is effective?
“If you’ve reported something that you have a concern around, it may need further action, or it may not.
“You need to know that someone has seen that who knows make an appropriate decision. And it feels like at the moment, there is a potential for that to go very badly wrong for individuals and for their families.”
It also emerged there are about 500 reports “stuck” in systems.
Mr Dilks said: “We have got reports now that go back to some months that are stuck in systems. People cannot get them back out.
“They’ve done the job. They just started draft report. That stage is probably more information needed. It has to go for quality assurance, and they can’t get it back out the system.”
Sir Julian told MPs he wrote to staff last month to ask what their top three priorities are for the organisation.
The feedback included claims that a new regulatory platform had caused staff “deep distress”.
New IT systems were introduced at the CQC with the aim of improving operations and communication with providers.
A provider portal was brought in in July 2023 and started being used widely the following April, while a new regulatory platform was started in November 2023 and also rolled out in April.
Sir Julian said: “It was unambiguous. The feedback, which I’ve subsequently shared with all the staff, was that the number one issue was all about the problems that the new regulatory platform, this system, that was implemented, has caused staff deep distress, a real sense that it’s stopping them being able to do their jobs.
“It was highlighted in the Dash review, but I think what has become really clear to me through spending a lot of time with staff in the organisation and hearing their concerns, was just the depth and scale of that.”
Sir Julian added that one comment received in the feedback is that the IT platform is preventing CQC staff from doing their job.
“We got a lot of qualitative feedback in terms of comments,” he told the committee.
“One that illustrates the regulatory platform and the IT systems, this is ‘far and away the number one reason for low productivity, staff stress, low staff morale and poor staff well being the regulatory platform is not fit for purpose and is preventing us from doing our job’.”
When asked if the watchdog has “the capacity to address the backlog while implementing changes that are necessary”, Sir Julian said: “I’m confident we’ve got a plan to do to go at it.
“First job is to make sure that we’ve got the ability to make sure that the regulatory platform, which has caused so much difficulty for staff, that there’s a way of inspectors and staff actually being able to do their job in order to increase the number of assessments.”
He told MPs other key priorities were to do more assessments and reduce backlogs in registration.
