From April the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will begin to operate a new registration system for providers of health and adult social care services, including mental health trusts and primary care trusts which provide community mental health services. In order to be registered, organisations will be required to meet essential levels of safety and quality. It will be illegal to provide a regulated activity without being registered by the Commission.
The CQC has also just published a positioning statement and action plan for mental heath care, outlining what it will do between 2010 and 2015 to ensure that mental health services reach not only basic standards of quality and safety, but also that they improve. The CQC has committed to ensuring that its mental health action plan is in line with the Government's New Horizons vision, and also takes account of other key national policy, guidance and findings.