Care Quality Commission appeals for care user feedback after troubling survey results

Recently the executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care, the CQC, has received a deluge of messages from loved ones, stakeholders, and people who use care services voicing their concern about the impact of isolation and restrictions on visiting times.

Responding to those concerns, the public body recently published a statement that sent a clear message to providers about the importance of visitors for care users and their loved ones. The organisation has been addressing reports of blanket visitation bans through inspections and safeguarding alerts and has been working with local authorities due to feedback from care users and their families.

On Wednesday, the CQC, published new research results illustrating the bleak realities and challenges faced by health and social care services in England during lockdown.

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The findings of the newly published survey, the CQC reported, stresses the importance of service users in providing feedback to improve the state of services.

However, whilst almost half of survey respondents believe that sharing feedback would have positively impacted the quality of their care over the pandemic, only 1 in 5 care users have shared feedback of negative experiences since 2019.

Because We All Care Campaign

Countering the unheard needs of care users, the CQC’s ‘Because We All Care Campaign’ aims to help services identify and address quality issues, such as bans on visitations, by supporting and encouraging people to share feedback on their experiences of health and social care services in England.

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The campaign was launched in July 2020, and over 50,000 people so far have shared their ideas and experiences of how care can be made better.

Kate Terroni, chief inspector of adult social care at CQC, said that the CQC research "underlines the stark challenges [facing] health and social care. The recent pressures on services, the emergence of the Omicron variant and the impact this is having on the availability of workforce.”

She added: “Yet our research also shows the power and value that giving feedback on care can have. Over half (55%) of those who have provided positive feedback felt better as a result, and 8 in 10 staff value feedback from people and their carers. We use feedback to inform our regulatory action, conducting 10,000 inspections since the pandemic began to ensure people are receiving high-quality care. We could not do this without the concerns people raise and the positive feedback on services which we are able to use to share good practice."

People can give feedback on their experiences of care, or those of someone they care for on the CQC website, or alternatively, if they wish to raise a concern about their care, or the care of a loved one, they can let the CQC know by filling out their ‘give feedback on care form’, or by calling 03000 616161.