On 31 October, Chris and Avril sent an All Staff Email about our preparations for CQC. Please find the email below.

Hi everyone

Today we want to share some more detail about what’s happening over the next few days and weeks in our CQC preparation, and how you might be involved. Please have a read and reach out if you have any questions. And if you haven't yet seen Jess’s monthly Adults and Health reflections, she has included a CQC update, so it's definitely worth a quick read.

We’re currently finalising our timetable for inspection with CQC, which will take place from Monday 18 until Wednesday 20 November, with inspectors based in 7.1 in 5PS. This includes inviting colleagues who CQC would like to meet with in a small number of focus groups. These are a great opportunity for us to share our story, and share the important work we do across Adult Social Care.
We’re inviting people to meet with CQC based on the services and areas inspectors want to learn more about. If you are invited to be part of these groups, we’ll write to you by the end of this week to let you know.

Anyone invited to meet with CQC will get lots of support beforehand – including a briefing pack and, of course, opportunities to check in with senior managers. You can also let us know whatever else you might need to get ready. As Jess has said, it’s worth remembering that inspectors aren’t looking to trip anyone up and won’t expect you to have all the answers or recall lots of detailed information – they just want to learn more about the work we do.

Some colleagues will also be speaking with CQC as part of the case audits and if so, you will already be aware of this and receiving support for your preparations – if you have any other questions or there’s anything else you need, please let us know.

Finally, we wanted to share that we have a new brand identity for Adult Social Care that we’re really excited about. Thank you so much to our colleagues from across the service who worked together with communications and design colleagues to develop and finalise the branding over the last few months, and ensure it reflects us and our work. Over the next few days you’ll start to see some posters that showcase the new branding and some key messages about who we are, what we do and what we believe. We’d love to hear your feedback on these, as well as any other ways you think this branding could help you or be used in your work – so please come along to one of our kitchen conversations to share your thoughts.

Speak soon,

Chris and Avril
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Chris Lehmann
Director of ASC Strategy and Commissioning and Deputy DASS

Avril Mayhew
Director of ASC Operations and Deputy DASS