Dr Adrian James to join as Interim Chief Inspector of Mental Health

Dr Adrian James will be joining CQC in July on a 6-month secondment as Interim Chief Inspector of Mental Health.

Adrian will replace Chris Dzikiti who is leaving to join the Nursing and Midwifery Council. He joins us from NHS England where he is medical director for mental health and neurodiversity.

He has extensive experience, including President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists from 2020 to 2023, and was the first medical director of Devon Partnership NHS Trust.

Adrian will be taking up this role on an interim basis as Arun Chopra continues to fill the role of interim Chief Executive. Adrian will be returning to his substantive post at NHS England at the end of the secondment.

• News: Adrian James named Interim Chief Inspector of Mental Health

Join us! Work for CQC

CQC staff have a wide range of skills and work across many disciplines.

Current vacancies include:

• Mental Health Act Reviewers
• Various analyst roles (Local Authority Assessment)
• Director of Strategy and Engagement
• Specialist Advisors – Eating Disorders

Benefits include generous leave entitlement, NHS or Nest pension schemes and a wide range of employee discounts.

Most roles offer flexible locations with the choice to be home-based. See the individual job listings for more information.

• Browse our current vacancies
• Working at CQC

Annual report and accounts 2024/25

Our annual report and accounts for 2024/25 have been published, giving details of our performance over that period.

Introducing the report, our outgoing Chair, Professor Sir Mike Richards, and our interim Chief Executive, Dr Arun Chopra, describe the progress made in improving the organisation after a difficult period.

“The commitment and dedication of our people has ensured that good work has continued to be delivered, and this is detailed in our performance report,” say both the Chair and interim Chief Executive.

“This commitment has helped put us in a stronger position as we continue to improve the way we work. And at every level of the organisation, we have invested time in meeting with and listening to the public, our stakeholders and those we regulate, so that we really understand what they need from us and how we can deliver it.”

• News: Our annual report and accounts 2024/25 published
• Report: Annual report and accounts

Strengthening how we work with ADASS

We have updated our agreement with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) that sets out how we work together to share information and promote quality and safety.

The agreement updates and strengthens the ways we work to make sure we share information in ways that reflect changes across the health and care system and learning from recent years.

The changes include:

• A renewed commitment to working collaboratively at all levels, and introducing a clearer tiered approach to engagement and governance.
• A stronger emphasis on sharing data and intelligence.
• A wider scope to focus more on human rights, equality and reducing health inequalities.
• Stronger safeguarding arrangements.
• Better co-ordination between CQC and ADASS when responding to emergencies and serious incidents.

Speaking about the changes, Chris Badger, our Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care said:

“By strengthening how we work together at local, regional and national levels, we are helping to support better outcomes for people who rely on adult social care services, keeping them safe when using services and ensuring they receive high-quality care.”

• News: Setting out how we work with the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS)

There’s still time to give your feedback on our draft assessment frameworks

In our consultation ‘Better regulation, better care’, we proposed moving away from a single assessment framework to separate frameworks that are more specific and relevant to the health and care sectors that we regulate.

We considered the responses and listened to feedback, which showed overwhelming support for this proposal, and have therefore developed an initial 4 draft sector-specific assessment frameworks for:

• adult social care
• mental health care
• primary care and community services
• hospitals, secondary and specialist care

We’d now like to hear your views about the draft frameworks. What we hear from you will be used to further refine each framework ahead of testing this summer.

The period for sharing your feedback will close on 12 June.

• Give your views on draft sector-specific assessment frameworks

New local authority assessments published

We publish reports that look at how local authorities are meeting their responsibilities under the Care Act (2014) to make sure people have access to adult social care and support.

Recent reports look at:

• Worcestershire County Council
• Lambeth Council
• Salford City Council
• Birmingham City Council

Each report looks at 9 areas across 4 themes to check how well each authority is meeting its responsibilities. We provide a score for each area out of 1 to 4. A score of 1 indicates that evidence shows significant shortfalls for this area, and a score of 4 indicates evidence showing an exceptional standard is being met.

• Local authority assessment reports
• News: Starting the next phase of local authority assessments