CQC provide update on periodic review of NHS organisations

7 July 2010

The Care Quality Commission's Chief Executive, Cynthia Bower, today issued a letter to all trust chief executives with an important update regarding CQC's 2009/10 periodic review.

The CQC has issued the following information:

“CQC and the Department of Health have been discussing the implications of revisions to the NHS Operating Framework for 2010/11 for the 2009/10 periodic review assessment of NHS organisations (the ‘Annual Health Check’).

Ministers have agreed that further work should halt on periodic review of NHS organisations for 2009/10, and do not require CQC to publish 2009/10 performance against indicators that have been taken out for 2010/11.

CQC will publish benchmarking data for 2009/10 for the indicators in the NHS Operating Framework as Existing Commitments, and Vital Signs tiers 1 and 2. This data will be published in the autumn. CQC will not publish aggregated scores for trusts. We will also not be publishing data relating to financial performance or World Class Commissioning.

CQC is in discussion with the Department with regard to what this means for 2010/11.The 2009/10 ratification and extenuating circumstances processes are already underway. We are therefore urging trusts to continue to engage in these important exercises, while also noting that no aggregated scores of excellent, good, adequate, or poor, or absolute thresholds of achievement, underachievement, or failure, will be awarded when the indicator data is published in the autumn.”  

The full letter can be found here.