Our fifth annual State of Care report – published today – shows there are many excellent services but the variation in quality in England is unacceptably wide.
The report offers a perspective across 40,000 services in 2013/14 and shows how strong leadership and a positive culture are the key to safe care.
David Behan, our Chief Executive, said: "While we will celebrate good and outstanding care where we find it, we are calling time on unacceptable inadequate care.
"When our inspections identify poor care, they should lead to improvement by providers, who should learn from the good and outstanding care we champion through our new ratings.
"From our inspections, the safety of services is our biggest concern. Care providers must make the basics of safe care a priority and build a culture of safety in their organisations. The principle of keeping people safe from harm is fundamental."
We’ve identified several key areas where action is needed:
- The public should be at the heart of good care
- Providers should accept where there are problems and use our inspections to drive up quality
- The wider health and care system needs to work together and help to put things right when services need to improve
- We will use our new approach to shine a light on poor care, highlight good and outstanding practice and encourage a learning culture.
