Reducing it's staff, appointing senior people from authorities under investigation themselves, and giving them wider and wider areas of remit with no more resources, can't be the answer. There is an urgent need for a replacement body focused on ensuring quality - not an incompetent watchdog focused on the least bad care.
If ever there was a case for Person Centred Planning this is it. Lets have a watchdog that is properly resourced that rewards good practice, that uses the army of people who understand care - family carers, and recognizes the contribution they can bring.
We need the whistleblowers - but they need to be taken seriously.
We need inspections - not a reliance on self assessment checklists.
We need best practice - not a failure to even prevent worst practice.
We need something other than CQC that can help the good care providers get better models of care accepted by bureaucratic local authorities as well as prevent poor providers abusing people. If there are no carrots, the stick just becomes something to be avoided - and poor providers will always be able to hide their bad practices in a situation where care happens behind closed doors.
Care can be good, but as constituted at present, CQC won't make it good.
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