Improving corporate accountability in health and social care

This consultation asks for views on proposals to hold providers of health and social care to account where there are serious failures in care.

It proposes that all directors of providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – NHS hospitals, private hospitals and care homes – must meet a new fit and proper person test. The CQC will be able to insist on the removal of directors that fail this test.

In cases where providers fail in the care that they provide, the CQC will be able to consider the role of the board and individual directors in that failure – with the power to prosecute in the case of serious failure.

The CQC has recently launched its own consultation on a new regulatory model which will include developing new fundamental standards as part of the requirements for registration with CQC. This will set in law a clear baseline below which care must never fall, and will allow CQC to take action against providers that do not meet these standards, including prosecuting individual directors where it can be established that they had neglected their duty to ensure that the basic standards of care are provided.