The Independent Review Panel members, Professor Joy Warmington, Arpita Dutt and Anne Robson, have shared the following statement.
"We have been struck by the goodwill, diligence, and commitment in CQC’s approach to conducting this review. An active listening, engaging and collaborative style of working was embedded during the investigative stage. Continuing with this approach will be key to the implementation of the recommendations. The review has been conducted at pace without compromising on delivering rigorous findings that we feel will enable the CQC to have a clear route to improvement. It is also recognised that other organisations in the health and social care space regulated by the CQC may benefit from the findings and the way the review was established and conducted.
"The findings exhibit candour and insight by revealing systemic governance, data and knowledge gaps, failures in process, communication, and cultural issues that CQC will need to reckon with. In particular the findings about the experiences of people with protected characteristics, offer good insight into how, the impact of our actions can fall short of our intentions. There are improvements required to CQC’s understanding of equality issues, how organisational change is managed and its harnessing of whistleblowing information, acting on such information effectively, and feeding back to whistleblowers and other stakeholders. To CQC’s credit, actions have already begun to be implemented, such as the publication of CQC’s new Freedom to Speak Up Policy. We were reassured at the honesty and candour specifically in recognising that there is a pressing need for the CQC to improve their understanding, confidence and competence, when dealing with race in particular.
"The recommendations are challenging in number and scope. Together, they are vital to ensure CQC lives up to its values, purpose and its legal obligations as a more effective regulator. That is why, prior to the demanding work of implementing the recommendations, careful consideration has been given as to how to evaluate whether the recommendations have created meaningful and sustainable change. The implementation and evaluation phase will involve the continuing scrutiny of this review board to ensure the recommendations have been faithfully implemented, their effects have been impact assessed and to inspire public confidence. We commend this report, its findings, and recommendations to the Board."