Care Quality Commission (formally known as the Healthcare Commission)

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. Their aim is to make sure better care is provided for everyone, whether that’s in hospital, in care homes, in people’s own homes, or elsewhere.

The Care Quality commission regulate health and adult social care services in England, whether provided by the NHS, local authorities, private companies or voluntary organisations. And, they protect the rights of people detained under the Mental Health Act.Anyone that uses lasers, IPL or LHE TM systems must register with the Care Quality Commission. Without registering, you are operating illegally.

The CQC make sure that essential common quality standards are being met where care is provided and they work towards the improvement of care services. The CQC promotes the rights and interests of people who use services and they have a wide range of enforcement powers to take action on their behalf if services are unacceptably poor.

The CQC work brings together independent regulation of health, mental health and adult social care. Before 1 April 2009, this work was carried out by the Healthcare Commission, the Mental Health Act Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection. These organisations no longer exist.

The main activities of the CQC are:

• Registration of health and social care providers to ensure they are meeting essential common quality standards
• Monitoring and inspection of all health and adult social care
• Using our enforcement powers, such as fines and public warnings or closures, if standards are not being met
• Improving health and social care services by undertaking regular reviews of how well those who arrange and provide services locally are performing and special reviews on particular care services, pathways of care or themes where there are particular concerns about quality

• Reporting the outcomes of our work so that people who use services have information about the quality of their local health and adult social care services. It helps those who arrange and provide services to see where improvement is needed and learn from each other about what works best.