Star Ratings
Every care service has to be registered with and inspected by the Care Quality Commission, (CQC). All Care Homes and Domiciliary Care bases within the Somerset Care Group are registered with CQC. All have a Registered Manager who is in day-to-day control of the service, and is responsible for ensuring quality services are provided and that the service meets legislation, company and regulatory requirements. The CQC is a national government body that has offices across the country. Each service has to meet its wide range of identified standards that are specific to the type of service provided, Care homes for Older People, Younger Adults or Domiciliary Care.
All care services are subject to an inspection by the CQC, with the frequency of inspections varying, dependant on the quality rating of the service. It can range from for example twice a year to a formal inspection every 2-3 years.
All care services have to ensure that a robust internal Quality Assurance process is in place and provide details of its outcomes to the CQC as part of the required Annual Quality Assurance Assessment (AQAA).
Following a review of this information and feedback from services users, families, care professionals and health colleagues, a decision is made by the CQC regarding formal inspection. On inspection the service is measured against the relevant standards as well as looking at the quality of the outcome for users of the service.
The four Quality Rating outcomes are:
3 star – Excellent
2 star – Good
1 star – Adequate
0 star – Poor
There are around 40 individual standards that each service has to meet and although there are some similarities, each type of service has standards that are specific to their service including staffing, health and personal care, management of the service, complaints and protection. These “clusters” of standards are inspected and a quality outcome determined for each section. All the outcomes are then analysed and an overall quality rating is published along with the detailed report. All services have copies of their latest inspection report available at their premises, or they can be accessed via the CQC website www.cqc.org.uk
If you would like more information or help in understanding the quality rating of any of our care services do contact the Registered Manager or enquiries@somersetcare.co.uk