Care Quality Commission (CQC) fees for registered providers 2016/17
Dear colleague,
In November last year, I wrote to you to let you know about our public consultation on the fees we charge registered providers. Today we have published the final fees scheme for 2016/17 on the fees page of our website. We will be publishing our response to the consultation and other supporting documents next Wednesday 6 April on this page. I realise that this process has taken longer than anticipated and apologise for the delay in sharing the outcome of the consultation with you.
Thank you to those of you who took part in the consultation. The responses we received expressed a strong preference for us to achieve full cost recovery over four years and these views were given a great deal of consideration by CQC’s Board. However, following the Government’s Spending Review, the level of grant-in-aid (i.e., direct government funding) available to CQC from the Department of Health for 2016/17 is such that in order to fulfil our statutory functions we have had to recommend to the Secretary of State for Health fee amounts for 2016/17 under the two-year option for all of the sectors we regulate except for community social care and for dental services. The Secretary of State has consented to these fees for 2016/17.
You can find the annual fee for your service for 2016/17 using the fees calculator published on our website today.
The two sectors furthest from full chargeable cost recovery are NHS GPs and the community social care sector.
General dental practices will continue to pay the same fees as they have done in 2015/16 for 2016/17 because the full chargeable cost of their regulation has already been recovered.
We do understand that the increases that have been agreed are not what the majority of those who took part in our consultation would have preferred, and we have communicated the response we received to the Department of Health. I would also acknowledge that these fee increases are being agreed in a financially difficult and challenging time for providers of health and social care. Over the next four years the overall CQC budget will reduce by £32 million. At the same time the proportion of the budget from grant-in-aid from the Department of Health will reduce, and the proportion charged to providers increase.
In May, CQC will publish its strategy for 2016-21, which will set out how we can carry out our role effectively and how we will be an efficient and effective regulator with fewer resources. It is important that while we make efficiency savings, we can continue to carry out our role effectively. Members of the public want to know that health and social care services are safe, effective, caring, responsive to their needs and well-led, and just as providers do, we must continue to act in the interests of people using services.
You can find guidance about how and when to pay your fees, including information on paying by instalment (available for all providers except NHS trusts) by visiting our fees page.
