Diary of a CQC assessment: Stage three – Preparation for the onsite visit

Selecting people to be interviewed for the on-site visit was an area where attention was needed both in terms of selecting key stakeholders to participate, while keeping those not directly involved updated. In our case, the number of days and content of each day for the visit changed regularly –  I suspect it will be a more stable feature in future formal assessment on-site arrangements.

The number of internal and external colleagues invited was in excess of 94 and for every interview – irrespective of whether it was an individual or a group of colleagues – we provided a guide to both the purpose of CQC assessment and what to expect, along with relevant material in our evidence chest e.g. our self-assessment and story-boards. My PA, other business support colleagues and a colleague from the service development unit were utter stars at this point and worked so hard to make the necessary arrangements: invitations, car parking, room bookings and catering arrangements. he business support team also tidied and upgraded the interior décor in the rooms for the CQC team (of which there were 10 people during the on-site phase) and the four rooms dedicated for interviews. Pretty much an entire wing of County Hall became devoted to the on-site week which included a dedicated senior leadership ‘home team’ room for the duration to help deal with anything arising. This included a learning log from each meeting so that any misunderstanding or misconception might be followed-up in a subsequent meeting – a learning point from colleagues in Children’s Services.

There was a series of discussions with CQC leads as our assessment process progressed – notably involving my lead Assistant Director. This is where the overlap with the upcoming CQC Assessment of Integrated Care Systems became a point of discussion. For example, the Better Care Fund (BCF) is a significant item in Lincolnshire with over £340mn pooled budget in 2023/24 and multiple Section 75s and integrated teams. The CQC evidence chest did not ask for the BCF Narrative Plan and the challenge of not straying from one assessment programme into another became quickly obvious. I was also really pleased that the Lincolnshire Director of Public Health (DPH) was to be interviewed for an hour for the on-site phase. This, for me is a key facet of the work we do in Lincolnshire, because the DPH sits in my Directorate and our business model blends the established DPH responsibilities with a much wider range of lead roles and budgets (well beyond the PH Grant) e.g. carers, our combined falls programme, our housing programme (even though we are a two-tier area), use of digital technology, the commissioned wellbeing service and so forth. As such it has a key role in the primary, secondary (where the Care Act plays out) and tertiary preventative services. The Public Health business model in Lincolnshire will look different across councils.