The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the regulatory organisation that ensures that the standards of health and social care across England remain consistent and high, no matter which organisation (NHS or otherwise) is providing the care.

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2. What are the five Care Quality Commission Domains?

3. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the regulatory organisation that
ensures that the standards of health and social care across England
remain consistent and high, no matter which organisation (NHS or
otherwise) is providing the care. Organisations that wish to provide
health and social care services must be registered with the CQC.

4. The registration process demands that the organisation in
question is able to demonstrate compliance with 5 key Domains.
In addition, even once an organisation is registered with the CQC
they are subject to compliance checks to ensure that the level of
care and support they deliver continues to remain or exceed that
seen at registration. These compliance checks can take the form
of spot check regulatory visits, requests for information from staff
and / or service users, and the review of self assessment or self-
certification tools completed by the organisation in question.

5. The focus of the CQC’s inspections is on the quality and safety of
services, based on the things that matter to people. Therefore,
they will always ask the following five questions of services when
they inspect, and these five umbrella questions are called the 5
Domains. These 5 Domains are:

6. DOMAIN 1 – ARE THEY SAFE? By safe, the CQC mean that people are protected
from abuse and avoidable harm.
DOMAIN 2 – ARE THEY EFFECTIVE? By effective, the CQC mean that people’s
care, treatment and support achieve good outcomes, promote a good quality of
life and are based on the best available evidence.
DOMAIN 3 – ARE THEY CARING? By caring, the CQC mean that staff involve and
treat people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.

7. DOMAIN 4 – ARE THEY RESPONSIVE? By responsive, the CQC
mean that services are organised so that they meet people’s
needs.
DOMAIN 5 – ARE THEY WELL-LED? By well-led, the CQC mean
that the leadership, management and governance of the
organisation assures the delivery of high quality person-centred
care, supports learning and innovation, and promotes an open
and fair culture.

8. To direct the focus of their inspections, CQC inspectors use a
standard set of key lines of enquiry (KLOEs) that directly relate to
the 5 Domains above. This means that against each Domain an
organisation could be asked a selection of key questions by the
CQC inspection teams as part of their assessment.
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