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| So the Care Quality Commission is to employ top-flight professionals as chief inspectors and staff that are professionally qualified as specialist inspectors (CQC 'would have cleared failing hospitals regardless', 22 June). It will also have a renewed focus on consumer issues. Given these prospective changes, the commission should look at housing inspection as a template. The housing inspectorate was led by the former director of housing from Bristol city council, had experienced and professionally qualified inspectors, and used tenants of local authorities and housing associations as part of inspection teams evaluating landlord services such as estate management and repairs and maintenance. | So the Care Quality Commission is to employ top-flight professionals as chief inspectors and staff that are professionally qualified as specialist inspectors (CQC 'would have cleared failing hospitals regardless', 22 June). It will also have a renewed focus on consumer issues. Given these prospective changes, the commission should look at housing inspection as a template. The housing inspectorate was led by the former director of housing from Bristol city council, had experienced and professionally qualified inspectors, and used tenants of local authorities and housing associations as part of inspection teams evaluating landlord services such as estate management and repairs and maintenance. |
| What's more, after 1,400 inspections an independent study concluded that the improvement in social housing services between 2000 and 2010 was in part due to the framework for inspection (H Pawson, UK Housing Review, 2011). Unfortunately, the people responsible for housing inspection and the systems used by staff are no longer around to help the CQC. That's because housing inspection – conducted under the auspices of the Audit Commission – was abolished by the government in 2010. Roger Jarman Former head of housing, Audit Commission | What's more, after 1,400 inspections an independent study concluded that the improvement in social housing services between 2000 and 2010 was in part due to the framework for inspection (H Pawson, UK Housing Review, 2011). Unfortunately, the people responsible for housing inspection and the systems used by staff are no longer around to help the CQC. That's because housing inspection – conducted under the auspices of the Audit Commission – was abolished by the government in 2010. Roger Jarman Former head of housing, Audit Commission |
| • You refer to Jeremy Hunt's attack on "the culture of defensiveness and secrecy in the NHS" (Editorial, 20 June). Nearly two years ago, concerns I raised within the NHS when a non-executive director were forwarded to the strategic health authority. I was told they were "completely unfounded". An internal SHA email ended with the words: "Hopefully this gets put to bed today." The SHA appointed a lawyer through whom I requested information. I was told one document I sought could not be found; when I asked when it went missing I got the response: "You have been informed that the letter you were seeking cannot be found. That is the end of the matter." | • You refer to Jeremy Hunt's attack on "the culture of defensiveness and secrecy in the NHS" (Editorial, 20 June). Nearly two years ago, concerns I raised within the NHS when a non-executive director were forwarded to the strategic health authority. I was told they were "completely unfounded". An internal SHA email ended with the words: "Hopefully this gets put to bed today." The SHA appointed a lawyer through whom I requested information. I was told one document I sought could not be found; when I asked when it went missing I got the response: "You have been informed that the letter you were seeking cannot be found. That is the end of the matter." |
| I wrote to some of those involved for clarification on related matters. After just one letter to the director of communications for NHS Property Services, the lawyer wrote to tell me he had received instructions to "seek an injunction against you to make you desist". He explained: "You are not an investigator, regulator or statutory body and you have no standing from which to require anyone to co-operate with your lines of enquiry. None of these people are accountable to you." | I wrote to some of those involved for clarification on related matters. After just one letter to the director of communications for NHS Property Services, the lawyer wrote to tell me he had received instructions to "seek an injunction against you to make you desist". He explained: "You are not an investigator, regulator or statutory body and you have no standing from which to require anyone to co-operate with your lines of enquiry. None of these people are accountable to you." |
| If senior NHS managers respond to members of the public in this way, there is an even greater need for effective and independent regulatory bodies. Mike Sheaff Plymouth | If senior NHS managers respond to members of the public in this way, there is an even greater need for effective and independent regulatory bodies. Mike Sheaff Plymouth |
| • The model of oversight, the rationale for the CQC, Ofsted and the rest of the regulatory alphabet soup, is deeply flawed. The transaction costs are staggering, and what is constantly being created and re-created is a parasitic bureaucracy smitten by the same disease of structures and processes so destructive of their host bodies. What we cannot inculcate in clinicians and pedagogues can never be supplied by inspection. Neil Blackshaw Little Easton, Essex | • The model of oversight, the rationale for the CQC, Ofsted and the rest of the regulatory alphabet soup, is deeply flawed. The transaction costs are staggering, and what is constantly being created and re-created is a parasitic bureaucracy smitten by the same disease of structures and processes so destructive of their host bodies. What we cannot inculcate in clinicians and pedagogues can never be supplied by inspection. Neil Blackshaw Little Easton, Essex |
| • I can only hope that the problems at the Care Quality Commission will help to dislodge the cult of the infinitely transferable super-manager, who flits from one six-figure-salaried job to another in a series of completely unrelated fields. Jill Finney, for example, went from being director of marketing at the British Library to deputy CEO of the CQC to chief commercial officer at Nominet, without apparently needing any knowledge of libraries, the NHS, or anything other than generic "management". Perhaps if people with relevant experience and a degree of commitment were employed in such roles, the results might be less disastrous for those whose lives they have so much influence over. Jill Allbrooke Bromley | • I can only hope that the problems at the Care Quality Commission will help to dislodge the cult of the infinitely transferable super-manager, who flits from one six-figure-salaried job to another in a series of completely unrelated fields. Jill Finney, for example, went from being director of marketing at the British Library to deputy CEO of the CQC to chief commercial officer at Nominet, without apparently needing any knowledge of libraries, the NHS, or anything other than generic "management". Perhaps if people with relevant experience and a degree of commitment were employed in such roles, the results might be less disastrous for those whose lives they have so much influence over. Jill Allbrooke Bromley |
| • The health secretary's pronouncements about what should happen to CQC staff allegedly involved in a cover-up, including the possibility of withholding their pensions, may appear to be "justice being done". However, it is quite wrong for him to make such pronouncements. There is a danger that dishing out punishment without a due process could lead to a further cover-up. Reactive statements such as those made by the health minister serve to focus attention on to a few individuals, and to deflect attention away from the need for thorough investigation. Dr M Turcan London | • The health secretary's pronouncements about what should happen to CQC staff allegedly involved in a cover-up, including the possibility of withholding their pensions, may appear to be "justice being done". However, it is quite wrong for him to make such pronouncements. There is a danger that dishing out punishment without a due process could lead to a further cover-up. Reactive statements such as those made by the health minister serve to focus attention on to a few individuals, and to deflect attention away from the need for thorough investigation. Dr M Turcan London |
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