ARA 2020 to 2021: Who we are and what we do

Published: 20 January 2022

Who we are

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England.

Our purpose

We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and we encourage care services to improve.

Our values

• Excellence: Meeting our challenge to be a high-performing organisation.
• Caring: Treating everyone with dignity and respect.
• Integrity: Demonstrating our passion for ‘doing the right thing’.
• Teamwork: Enabling us to be the best we can be.

How we are organised

We are organised under six directorates:

• Adult Social Care.
• Hospitals (including mental health).
• Primary Medical Services and Integrated Care.
• Intelligence and Digital.
• Engagement, Policy and Strategy.
• Regulatory, Customer and Corporate Operations.

What we do

Our role

• Register: We register health and adult social care providers.
• Monitor, inspect, rate: We monitor and inspect services to see whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led, and we publish what we find, including quality ratings.
• Enforce: We use our legal powers to take action where we identify poor care.
• Independent voice We speak independently, publishing regional and national views of the major quality issues in health and social care, and encouraging improvement by highlighting good practice.

Our strategic priorities (2016 to 2021)

1. Encourage improvement, innovation and sustainability in care – supporting improvement and adapting our approach as new care models develop.
2. Deliver an intelligence-driven approach to regulation – using information more effectively to target our resources.
3. Promote a single shared view of quality – working with others to deliver a single vision of high-quality care.
4. Improve our efficiency and effectiveness – working more efficiently, achieving savings, and improving how we work with the public and providers.

Who we work with

• We are the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. We report to Parliament through the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
• We work with other regulators, local authorities and commissioning groups, health and social care organisations, and organisations that represent, or act on behalf of, people who use services, including the Healthwatch network.
• Healthwatch England, the national consumer champion for users of health and social care services, is a statutory committee of CQC’s Board.
• The National Guardian’s Freedom to Speak Up Office (NGO) is jointly funded by CQC, NHS England and NHS Improvement. CQC’s Chief Executive has responsibility as Accounting Officer for the NGO and for Healthwatch England.

Next section
Part 1: Performance Report

Previous section:
Contents