Welcome to Learn on the go, a Community Care Inform podcast where we discuss the latest research, practice models and policy guidance and what they mean to your practice.

This episode looks at the Care Quality Commission's new duty, under the Health and Care Act 2022, to assess how local authorities are meeting their Care Act duties. The assessment framework has nine quality statements mapped across four overall themes: working with people; providing support; how the local authority ensures safety within the system; and leadership.

Discussing this CQC role in more depth are Mary Cridge, director of adult social care at the CQC, and Amanda Stride, the CQC’s deputy director for delivery of local authority assessments.

The questions were asked by Natalie Valios, senior content editor for Community Care Inform Adults.

0:01:19.6 - the testing process.

0:02:55.7 - when will the assessments start?

0:03:36.0 - what will happen once the two-year period has finished? Will there be a rolling programme with a certain number of authorities assessed every year or will you only assess those which receive a ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ rating?

0:04:26.3 - how much advance notice will a local authority be given that they’re going to be assessed?

0:05:12.9 - it’s easier to envisage what leaders will need to do to prepare for an assessment, but will there be anything that frontline practitioners will need to do?

0:06:07.8 - what will be the ratio of in-person inspection versus reviewing evidence and data? And will you be observing social workers in practice as Ofsted does in its assessment of children’s services?

0:07:40.9 - what reassurance can you give about the single word grading system?

0:08:58.3 - will the CQC speak to frontline staff without managers present, or let them give their views anonymously during assessments?

0:09:39.8 - with councils under such tremendous pressure in social care, and that pressure affecting each authority differently, how will the CQC take this into account in its judgments?

0:10:33.8 - the assessment framework says that the CQC will be looking at whether councils have arrangements for ensuring timely assessments, care planning and care reviews. How will timeliness be judged?

0:11:22.7 - how far will the CQC be able to judge a council’s level of compliance with the sections of the Care Act it's assessing?

0:11:56.6 - does the Department of Health and Social Care have plans to bring in a system of intervention in authorities found to be failing by CQC?

0:12:36.6 - what professional expertise or expertise by experience will your inspectors bring to bear in assessing local authorities?

0:13:24.7 - how will adult social care benefit from these CQC assessments?