PROVIDING A
CARING
SAFE
WELL-LED
EFFECTIVE AND
RESPONSIVE
COMMITMENT TO OUR CLIENTS
Regulation plays a vital role in setting and enforcing the standards of professional behaviour, competence and ethics underpinning the day-to-day interactions of our clients and those who commission our services.
Registration is more than just holding a company or professional’s name on a register
The roles, functions and powers of our regulators the CQC (England) and CIW (Wales) vary, but both perform the following functions.
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Set standards of competence, conduct and ethics which we must meet to register and practice.
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Check the quality of education and training, to ensure our workforce develop the knowledge, skills and qualities to practice competently and safely.
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Check the quality and competence of delivery of healthcare we provide.
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Have the power to investigate complaints about registered bodies and make decisions about whether they should be allowed to continue to provide.
While the work of regulators only occasionally permeates public consciousness (usually because of some terrible crisis), their role in shaping and enforcing the attitudes, behaviours and competencies of the companies they regulate has a critical influence over people’s daily interactions with the health and social care provider they have chosen to invite into their lives.
Regulation can be difficult for the public to understand. The professional regulatory system can be hard to make sense of and navigate, as the language of regulation is also very technical and opaque, which has consequences for general public understanding and public trust in the system.
However, the main reason for health regulation and health and safety legislation remains simple; to protect people receiving care and support, who by this very definition remain vulnerable; as well as protecting the people performing the work of care delivery.
Legislation, that is laws, are made so that everyone in society knows which behaviours and actions are acceptable and which are not.