Enforcement policy
This policy sets out how we will use our enforcement powers under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, as amended by the Care Act 2014.
Updates to this policy in 2023
Since we published this policy in 2015, we have:
- Improved the language to be more accessible, using clear, plain English.
- Removed the diagram ‘CQC’s Operating Model’ as it is no longer relevant.
- Removed the table ‘Relationship between the ratings and regulations’ as it is out of date.
- Removed the principle ‘integrating enforcement into our regulatory model’, as it is now no longer relevant. We have published information about our new approach to assessments on our website.
- Removed the summary of the decision tree as we provide a link to it.
- Replaced the reference to ‘sector’ enforcement priorities with ‘enforcement priorities’ more generally.
- Updated the section on use of conditions to be more concise.
- Removed references to special measures where they concern NHS trusts as CQC and NHS England no longer use these.