Those put in charge have forgotten ‘the Mum test’

IT IS not an exaggeration to say the failure of mission in the CQC has been a major contribution to human misery in many care homes over the past 12 months.

This is not an attack on individual CQC inspectors but on its current leadership.

Kate Terroni, chief inspector of adult social care, has it seems forgotten “the Mum test”.

Her predecessor Andrea Sutcliffe said: “To make sure our regulatory approach is truly personalised I want us to consider for every service we look at – is this good enough for my Mum [or any other member of my family]? If it is, that is fantastic.

“If it’s not, then we need to do something about it.”

She said her organisation was “about the people using services and putting them at the heart of what we do”.

I’m sure there are good people in the CQC who feel miserable at their abandonment of the rights and needs of other people’s mums – abandonment of all the individual service users.

Ms Terroni has said the CQC will take action against blanket bans, without seeming to be very clear as to what or where they are. Her reported approach is negative, policy driven, non-specific and institutional.

It is not a championing of the rights and needs of every individual – which is what CQC inspectors should be doing.

The CQC has failed as an organisation and its latest consultation – which is about processes, not people – looks likely to make things worse. If Ms Terroni does not understand the importance of the “Mum test” she should resign.