GovWire

In May 2024, Dr Penny Dash was asked by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to conduct a review into the operational effectiveness of the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

An interim report of her work, providing a high-level summary of her emerging findings, was published in July 2024.

This full report summarises the final findings of the review, outlining the necessary changes to start improving CQC. It makes 7 recommendations and is aimed at:

• health and care professionals
• health and social care services
• academic and professional institutions
• the general public

Alongside the reviews full report, DHSC wanted to independently determine if the reviews concerns were substantiated with objective data through the consideration of a number of research questions. The results of this research can be found in the accompanying Analysis of Care Quality Commission data on inspections, assessments and ratings, 2014 to 2024 and Analysis of Care Quality Commission data on inspections, assessments and ratings, 2014 to 2024: supplementary data tables.

A second review considering the wider landscape for quality of care, with an initial focus on safety, will be published in early 2025.