CQC AM 139 Public Research

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator for health and social care services in England. We monitor and inspect services to make sure they meet fundamental standards of quality and safety and we publish what we find including performance ratings to help people choose care.

Public engagement is central to CQC's purpose. It ensures we understand and focus on what matters to people, helps to build public trust and confidence in our work, empowers people to understand the quality of care they should expect and helps them to choose between services if they want to. It also enables CQC to meet its statutory requirements as set out in the HSCA 2008 (and amended in 2013).

This procurement is integral to the delivery of key priorities within the CQC Strategy 2016-2021, in terms of: 1. Building effective partnerships with voluntary and community sector partners to encourage improvement, innovation, sustainability in care (Priority 1) 2. Supporting development of information products and processes to deliver an intelligence-driven approach to regulation (Priority 2) 3. Providing a public assessment of our value for money and understanding of our impact (Priority 4).

The procurement of public research will also support the delivery of the following objectives in CQC's Engagement Business Plan: • 2.2 Ensure the views of our key audiences are heard in the development of and consultation on a more responsive and targeted inspection approach in each sector to an identified quantity and quality, ensuring a coordinated approach to the strategy beyond 2016 - 2017 • E.4 Gather and publish data, insight and case studies which demonstrate our impact and support improvements in quality in each of the sectors we regulate.