Inspecting and regulating care services

Health and social care services must be registered to show that they meet a set of standards. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. It registers care providers and inspects and rates services. When things go wrong, the CQC can also take action to protect people who use services.

After an inspection of a care home or home care agency, the CQC publishes a report of what it found. The report looks at how well the service meets the CQC’s five key questions: Is the service safe? Effective? Caring? Responsive to people’s needs? Well led?

Each care home and home care agency will get an overall rating of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. It will also get ratings for each key question. The ratings mean you can

Palliative and end of life care

Palliative care

Refers to the services provided for people affected by a life-limiting illness when there is no cure or treatment, to try to make the end of a person’s life as comfortable as possible and to provide dignity at this difficult time. This will include relieving pain and other symptoms whilst providing psychological and social support to the person who is ill and to their carers and family.

Patients can receive palliative care in their own home or a preferred place of care (such as a hospice, care home with nursing or hospital). Patients and their carers should talk to their GP, district nurse or hospital doctor about their needs.

End of life care

An important part of palliative care and usually refers to the care of a person during the last year of their life. Some people who are nearing the end of their life will be eligible for funded healthcare called ‘Continuing Healthcare’ and there is a fast-track assessment process to provide a quick response to their needs.

easily see where a service is performing well, and where it needs to improve.

It’s always a good idea to check inspection reports and ratings when choosing a care service. You can find reports and ratings on the CQC’s website: www.cqc.org.uk/ Care providers must also display their latest rating at their premises and on their website.

You can also tell the CQC about your experiences of care – good or bad. It can use your information to see where it should inspect next, and what to look out for when it does. If you want to share your experience of care, visit: www.cqc.org.uk/share

Tel: 0300 061 6161

Email: enquiries@cqc.org.uk

Web: www.cqc.org.uk

Write to: The Care Quality Commission, Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4PA

Tell Us Once

Losing a loved one is hard enough without the stress of making endless contacts to inform people. Tell Us Once is a service to make it easier for families to notify some Government departments about the changes to their circumstances.

When you make an appointment to register a death in North Yorkshire, you will be offered this service during the death registration, and it will mean that you can just tell us once and we will notify the organisations that participate in the service.

More information, including the contact details you need for our registration offices in North Yorkshire, can be found at: www.northyorks.gov.uk/birthsdeaths-marriages/death or you can contact our Customer Services Centre on: 0300 131 2 131.