Inside CQC: Improving supported living
Debbie Ivanova, Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, shares the ways the regulator is changing how it communicates, and discusses its commitment to improving supported living.
Essential to the work we do across CQC is exploring ways of communicating with people who access health and social care services, as well as their relatives and carers. To do this well we need to think about how we can reach as many people as possible, not just those who find it easy to talk about their care.
Since last spring we’ve been training and supporting CQC inspectors to use talking mats, which is an interactive symbols tool we use to help meet people’s communication needs. It can be used to support anyone who may have difficulties communicating their experiences of care. This includes people who live with dementia, people who have had a brain injury, people who have a learning disability, deaf people, people who do not have English as their first language and people with mental health conditions.