A committee of MPs will adopt a CQC-style ratings system to judge the Government’s performance on key pledges in delivering health and social care.
House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee chair Jeremy Hunt said an independent expert panel would evaluate progress made in specific policy areas by awarding ratings of inadequate to outstanding.
He added that the CQC-style ‘inspection’ process will help the committee hold the Government to account on its promises and would feed into on-going and future inquiries.
A pilot of the scheme will look at progress made against targets set in maternity services, the committee announced.
‘We are piloting a new CQC-style ratings system to provide an expert independent assessment of the government’s record on key pledges,’ said Mr Hunt.
‘This will mean the government is held to account by an evaluation process similar to that used across the NHS and social care system which gives not just an absolute score but key pointers as to how to improve that score next time round.
‘We hope it will focus attention on areas such as cancer, mental health and patient safety where a number of vital commitments have been made.’
The panel will be chaired by Professor Dame Jane Dacre, professor of medical education at University College London and former President of the Royal College of Physicians.
There will be a call for written submissions in each policy area with the panel making a judgement on how well the Government has met its overall target, whether it was properly funded and achieved a positive impact for patients and whether it was an appropriate target in the first place.
Whilst serving as health secretary between 2012 and 2018, Mr Hunt failed to deliver his pledge of bringing 5,000 more GPs into the workforce – a committment he made in 2015, with the aim of achieving it by 2020.
He was appointed chair of the health select committee in January this year, after serving as foreign secretary under Theresa May, then losing his bid to become the Prime Minister.
At the time of his appointment, he said he believed his experience of the NHS made him ‘best placed to ask the searching questions that will truly hold the Government to account’.
