Safety Through Learning

A brief guide to the CQC's new strategy and core ambitions

This resource provides a brief overview of the CQC Strategy 2021, including its central themes and core ambitions, and their intended outcomes.

We focus on one of the four key themes of the strategy: Safety through learning. We look at the reasons why safety has been identified as a central theme and the ways in which the CQC plans to help improve safety across health and care services. 

CQC Strategy 2021

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) have launched their new strategy for the changing world of health and social care.

Combining a range of learning and experience from the past five years with public and stakeholder views, the strategy sets out changes to the way in which the CQC regulates services in order to improve care for everyone.

It is designed to make regulation of care more relevant, flexible, responsive and proportionate and sets out the CQC's regulation strategy under four key themes:

People and Communities

Regulation will be driven by people's needs and experiences, and what matters most to them

Safety Through Learning

Regulation will help build stronger safety cultures across health and care, prioritising learning, improvement and collaboration

Smarter Regulation

Regulation will be smarter, more dynamic and flexible, providing up to date and high-quality information and ratings for services

Accelerating Improvement

Regulation will enable health and care services to access support to improve the quality of care

Core Ambitions

Running through and underpinning each of the strategy's four key themes are two core ambitions. These ambitions ensure the key vision of making a positive impact on the experiences of everyone who receives care is placed at the heart of the CQC's new strategy.

Regulation will be targeted, and support health and care services to prioritise and improve safety for all.

Assessing local systems

Providing the public with independent assurance about the quality of care in their area

Tackling inequalities in health and care

Pushing for equality of access, experiences and outcomes from services

Intended Outcomes

  • Regulation of services will be driven by people's experiences of care
  • CQC will provide a clear and consistent definition of quality and safety
  • CQC will develop how it works in partnership with people
  • CQC will be an effective, proportionate, targeted and dynamic regulator
  • People will be able to access up-to-date and accurate information about the quality of services
  • It will be easy to exchange information with the CQC, and the information they provide will be relevant, useful and accessible
  • People will receive better, joined-up care
  • Inequalities in health and social care will be reduced
  • Safety cultures across health and care will be improved
  • People will receive safer care
  • Improvements in the quality of care will be accelerated
  • CQC will encourage and enable safe innovation

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