CQC inspections may achieve few tangible benefits

A study of how CQC inspections influence care providers' performance has startling insights

In a recent study, researchers from the King’s Fund and Alliance Manchester Business School examined the influence of the Care Quality Commission on the performance of organisations providing care.

They used a mixed-methods approach, combining a literature review, qualitative fieldwork and quantitative analyses of national data on provider performance.

The review contains the startling observation that the analysis of changes in selected routine performance indicators ‘found little or no impact across a range of sectors, services and indicators’ after inspection.

Ineffective prediction of poor performance

Similarly, the data used by the CQC to generate its former Intelligent Monitoring ratings, which were used before an inspection to predict risk of poor performance, had little or no correlation with subsequent