Health Care external quality regulators

Summary

The requester asked about compliance with the 2019 Sir Jonathan Michael report regarding external quality regulators for Manx Care, specifically concerning CQC inspections and ratings. The Department of Health and Social Care responded that most information is publicly available online, confirmed that CQC baseline inspections are complete with no further CQC visits planned, and stated that future inspections will not receive formal CQC ratings due to lack of enforcement powers on the Isle of Man.

Key Facts

• The Manx Care Act 2021 requires services to be inspected at least once every five years by independent persons or bodies appointed by the Department.
• The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has completed its commissioned baseline inspections and there are no further arrangements for additional CQC inspections.
• Future inspections of Manx Care will not be formally rated by the CQC because the island's services are not registered with them.
• The CQC does not have enforcement powers on the Isle of Man.
• Responsibility for improvement recommendations lies with Manx Care in partnership with its services, supported by the Department.

Data Disclosed

• April 2019
• 2021/22
• 2025-01-27
• 2025-02-21
• 4400885
• five years
• Manx Care Act 2021
• Schedule 1 Part 3
• section 20

Exemptions Cited

• Section 20 of the Act (Information already reasonably accessible)

Original Request

In April 2019 Sir Jonathan Michael report stated: Recommendation 3 - "Services provided directly or indirectly by Manx Care should be inspected regularly by independent, external quality regulators, with a report to the Manx Care Board and to the DHSC". From information available online it appears Manx Care had CQC inspections in 2021/22. These inspections were to provide an initial baseline report, ie the CQC inspections did not formally rate Manx health services as either 1. outstanding 2. good 3. requires improvement or 4. inadequate Please provide information on 1. How DHSC intend to comply with recommendation 3 of the 2019 Sir Jonathan Michael report 2. When the CQC are next due to visit / inspect Manx Care services 3. If the next Manx Care inspections will be formally rated in accordance with CQC normal procedure

Data Tables (1)

Full Response Text

Chief Officer: Paul Richardson Freedom of Information Team First Floor Belgravia House Circular Road Douglas IM1 1AE

Our ref: 4400885 21 February 2025

Dear ###

We write further to your request, received 27 January 2025, which states:

"In April 2019 Sir Jonathan Michael report stated:

Recommendation 3 - "Services provided directly or indirectly by Manx Care should be inspected regularly by independent, external quality regulators, with a report to the Manx Care Board and to the DHSC".

From information available online it appears Manx Care had CQC inspections in 2021/22. These inspections were to provide an initial baseline report, ie the CQC inspections did not formally rate Manx health services as either

1. outstanding
2. good
3. requires improvement or
4. inadequate

Please provide information on

1. How DHSC intend to comply with recommendation 3 of the 2019 Sir Jonathan Michael report

2. When the CQC are next due to visit / inspect Manx Care services

3. If the next Manx Care inspections will be formally rated in accordance with CQC normal procedure

Thank you"

Our response to your request is as follows:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, under section 20 of the Act, the Department for Health and Social Care (the Department) are not required to provide information in response to a request if it is already reasonably accessible to you, whether free of charge or on payment of a fee.

Further to your enquiry about inspections of Manx Care most of the information that you have requested is available via the following links: -

• External Quality Regulation website via this link.
• Manx Care Act 2021 via this link.

1. How DHSC intend to comply with recommendation 3 of the 2019 Sir Jonathan Michael report

To provide advice and assistance, the External Quality Regulation website provides an overview of actions that have been completed as part of the Recommendation 3, including baseline inspections via this link.

The Manx Care Act 2021 at Schedule 1 Part 3, requires that each service provided under the mandate is subject to an inspection at least once in every five years and that inspections must be conducted by one or more appropriate independent persons or bodies appointed by the Department. It is the intention that Manx Care services will be inspected at least once in every five years.

The Manx Care Act 2021 is available online via this link.

1. When the CQC are next due to visit / inspect Manx Care services

To provide advice and assistance the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have completed the baseline inspections they were commissioned to undertake by the Department. There have been no further arrangements for additional CQC inspections of Manx Care. As detailed in our response to Question 1, future inspections will be carried out in accordance with the timescales set by legislation.

1. If the next Manx Care inspections will be formally rated in accordance with CQC normal procedure

To provide advice and assistance should CQC be commissioned to inspect Manx Care’s direct or commissioned services in the future, a rating would not be provided. This is because the island’s services are not registered with CQC, and therefore CQC do not have enforcement powers on the Isle of Man.

Any improvement recommendations, resulting from the baseline inspection findings, are the responsibility of Manx Care in partnership with its services, with the support of the Department to provide remediation and assurance.

Advice and assistance for future FOI requests

To provide you with advice and assistance I have detailed some definitions from the FOI Act to help you formulate future requests.

The purpose of the Act is to enable every person resident in the Island a right to access information held by a public authority. The Act at Part 1, 5 defines information as meaning information recorded in any form. Accordingly, requests received under the Act should be formatted to include an adequate description or reference to the information (records) requested.

Requests should provide a description of the records you are asking us to disclose, rather than formulated as a series of questions, as it may not be possible for the Department to respond to questions under the provisions of the Act.

Please quote the reference number 4400885 in any future communications.

Your right to request a review

If you are unhappy with this response to your freedom of information request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review of the response, by completing a complaint form and submitting it electronically or by delivery/post.

An electronic version of our complaint form can be found by going to our website at https://services.gov.im/freedom-of-information/Review . If you would like a paper version of our complaint form to be sent to you by post, please contact me and I will be happy to arrange for this. Your review request should explain why you are dissatisfied with this response, and should be made as soon as practicable. We will respond as soon as the review has been concluded.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the review, you then have the right to appeal to the Information Commissioner for a decision on; 1. Whether we have responded to your request for information in accordance with Part 2 of the Freedom of Information Act 2015; or 2. Whether we are justified in refusing to give you the information requested.
In response to an application for review, the Information Commissioner may, at any time, attempt to resolve a matter by negotiation, conciliation, mediation or another form of alternative dispute resolution and will have regard to any outcome of this in making any subsequent decision. More detailed information on your right to a review can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website at www.inforights.im. Should you have any queries concerning this letter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Further information about freedom of information requests can be found at www.gov.im/foi.

I will now close your request as of this date.