Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission  is an ORGANISATION.

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care services in England, whether provided by the NHS, Local Authorities, private companies or voluntary ORGANISATIONS. It also protects the rights of people detained under the Mental Health Act.

The Care Quality Commission makes sure that essential common quality standards are being met where care is provided and works towards the improvement of care services. It promotes the rights and interests of people who use services and has a wide range of enforcement powers to take action on their behalf if services are unacceptably poor.

The Care Quality Commission's work brings together independent regulation of health, mental health and adult social care. Before 1 April 2009, this work was carried out by the Healthcare Commission, the Mental Health Act Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection. These ORGANISATIONS no longer exist.

The Care Quality Commission's main activities are:

• Registration of health and social care providers to ensure they are meeting essential common quality standards;

• Monitoring and inspection of all health and adult social care;

• Using its enforcement powers, such as fines and public warnings or closures, if standards are not being met;

• Improving health and social care services by undertaking regular reviews of how well those who arrange and provide services locally are performing and special reviews on particular care services, pathways of care or themes where there are particular concerns about quality;

• Reporting the outcomes of its work so that people who use services have information about the quality of their local health and adult social care services. It helps those who arrange and provide services to see where improvement is needed and learn from each other about what works best.

For further information on the Care Quality Commission, see the:

• Care Quality Commission

   website at: About Us

• Contact us page

  of the Care Quality Commission  website for contact details.