Healthcare Commission

The Healthcare Commission is an independent body, set up to promote and drive improvement in the quality of healthcare and public health in England and Wales. It aims to achieve this by becoming an authoritative and trusted source of information and by ensuring that this information is used to drive improvement. The Commission is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) established by the Department of Health.

Role
The Healthcare Commission fulfils its role in promoting quality in healthcare through providing an independent assessment of the standards of services provided by the NHS, private healthcare and voluntary organisations.

The Healthcare Commission achieves this by:
 * Regulating and inspecting NHS, private and voluntary healthcare providers.
 * Reviewing formal complaints about the NHS that have not been resolved.
 * Handling complaints about private and voluntary healthcare service providers.
 * Investigating serious failures in NHS, private and voluntary services.

These functions apply in England, though the Healthcare Commission has a limited role in Wales, complemented by that of Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, which is part of the Welsh Assembly. The ability to inspect all sectors, provide guidance and act if that guidance is not acted on is possible because the Healthcare Commission is independent.

History
The Healthcare Commission took over the role of the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) on the 1st April 2004 and also assumed some of the responsibilities of the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC) and the Audit Commission, as well as a number of additional functions.

The legal name for the Healthcare Commission is the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI). It was created by the Health and Social Care (Community Standards) Act 2003.

The Commission's Chairman is Professor Sir Ian Kennedy.

Annual Health Check
For the first two years of its existence, the Healthcare Commission continued the annual reporting of NHS providers using star ratings where Trusts were awarded one, two or three stars based upon their performance measured against clinical targets.

From 2006, an annual health check replaces the 'star ratings' assessment system and looks at a much broader range of issues than the targets used previously. It seeks to make much better use of the data, judgements and expertise of others to focus on measuring what matters to people who use and provide healthcare services.

The overall aim of the new assessment of performance, and the information gained through the process, is to promote improvements in healthcare. The annual health check process is designed to use views of patients and users of services as well as robust data sources for the arms-length monitoring of clinical performance. This lessening of the target setting by Whitehall is in line with the 'light touch' strategy set out by Gordon Brown in his 2005 budget and compatible with the vision proposed by David Cameron at the 2006 Conservative conference. It also aims to help people to make better informed decisions about their care, promote the sharing of information and give clearer expectations on standards of performance.

The new ratings effectively grade NHS organisations on the quality of services and use of resources with services deemed to be one of four levels: Weak - Fair - Good - Excellent. Trusts that meet the clinical targets used in the previous star ratings will achieve a fair rating. Good and Excellent ratings will be awarded to organisations that can demonstrate that they have processes in place to improve their services.

Mission statement
The Healthcare Commission promotes improvement in the quality of the NHS and independent healthcare. We have a wide range of responsibilities, all aimed at improving the quality of healthcare. We have a statutory duty to assess the performance of healthcare organisations, award annual performance ratings for the NHS and coordinate reviews of healthcare by others. Through this site, you can find out more about what we do and the difference we will make to patients and the public.

The Healthcare Commission aims to promote improvement in the quality of NHS and independent healthcare across England and Wales.

Among the Commission's functions, these mainly include:


 * to independently inspect health services from patients' perspective, using standards set out by the Department of Health


 * to coordinate NHS inspections with a range of other healthcare organisations in order to minimise disruption to doctors and nurses


 * to identify how effectively public funds are used within healthcare - particularly whether tax payers are getting good value for money


 * to develop an independent second stage for complaints about the NHS which cannot be resolved locally


 * to investigate serious failures in healthcare services


 * to publish regular ratings of NHS trusts in England and an annual report on healthcare in England and Wales.

We are interested not only in treatment but also in preventative work such as the quality of services that help people stop smoking. It is for this reason that our inspections will also look at how well health services protect and improve the health of the public.

Proposed future
Dated - 16th March 2005

The UK Health Secretary John Reid confirmed that the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection will merge to form a single organisation by 2008.

The planned merger reflects increasingly close collaboration on the ground between people working in social and health care. It also reflects shared objectives for the highest possible standards for everyone using social and health care services.

The merger is part of a wider policy to improve regulation and help reduce the burden that it can place on the frontline across social and health care. It follows on from the Department of Health’s programme of downsizing and its current review of its Arm’s Length Bodies. It was assumed that legislation to create the merged body would appear in the Queen's Speech in Autumn 2008 but that has not been the case. However, the Department of Health have since stated that the merger is still going ahead as planned in 2008. They have just released a consultation paper on this in late November 2006 and aim to put together a cross-organisational merger team by mid-2007.