Safeguarding concerns falling in care sector, latest figures show
Amongst the chaos unfolding in the care sector new research has found safeguarding concerns are dropping since the pandemic.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, safeguarding concerns within the social care sector faced serious highs, but from January to May this year, more than 9,000 safeguarding alerts and concerns have been raised compared to 21,886 in 2021.
The figures, which were obtained through Freedom of Information request to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – conducted by law firm Pannone Corporate – also show inspections in the UK’s care sector are on track to fall, continuing on the downward trend seen since 2019.
Zooming in on this research, announced inspections fell from a peak figure of 6,684 in 2019 to just 1,458 in January to May 2023. In addition, during the first five months of 2023 2,223 unannounced inspections were carried out which contrasts the 19,586 that occurred in 2016.
The significant reduction has been attributed not only to the pandemic, with the CQC temporarily ceasing all physical inspections from 16th March 2020, but also to the evolving regulatory model being adopted by the Commission.
Bill Dunkerley, regulatory lawyer and associate partner at law firm, Pannone Corporate, said: ‘The seismic impact of the pandemic on the care sector is widely documented and this can be seen in the figures released by the CQC around safeguarding concerns and inspections.
‘What’s also clear is that the CQC is not static in its approach and the standards which is expects providers to achieve continue to evolve. This is evident in the introduction ‘Single Assessment Framework’, as well as the initial evidence-gathering phase being simplified into six new categories, to streamline the information collated.
‘The feedback received will allow the CQC to make individual assessments more bespoke to individual providers, for example in respect of their delivery model or population group.’
The FOI research, which was published on Monday, also shows that since March 2021, the CQC has received nearly 37,000 whistleblowing enquiries, with more than 6,000 being received in the first five months of 2023. The number of complaints raised during the same 26-month period topped 135,000.
However, with only 25,017 made between January to May 2023, it’s unlikely the figure will exceed the 62,591 seen in total in 2022.
‘The trend across the board is a general decline in headline figures, with complaints, whistleblowing, and safeguarding concerns all likely to be lower in 2023 based on current statistics,’ Bill said. ‘As the CQC continues to roll out its new regulatory model, and Inspectors find their feet with the new data-driven approach, it will be interesting to see how the figures develop over the coming months and years.’
Image: Jack Finnigan