In this monthly report, FPM looks in detail at what the CQC have publicly reported from some of their GP practice inspections during January 2025. Only the most notable/useful comments are selected for readers from amongst thousands. We highlight some of the behaviours that won practices Outstanding ratings, and the reasons some practices were scored Requires Improvement, or Inadequate. Do you recognise any of the observations the CQC picked up, either good or bad?

Outstanding Ratings

Outstanding scores of 4 were again awarded this month for local outreach and inreach to marginalised groups, in this case local Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. Other outstanding behaviour included new patient bereavement support packs and a weekly outreach walk alongside the county council’s homeless outreach team.

Requires Improvement or Inadequate Ratings

The two Key Lines of Enquiry to be scored poorly (1 or 2) remain Safe and Well-Led.

Within Safe, the “Safe and effective staffing” category remained a common area for practices to be scored 1 or 2, particularly when it came to gaps in documentation in regard to recruitment, training and supervision.

Within Well-Led: the “governance” area was most problematic especially when it came to Policies & Procedures: policies and procedures were not stored in a designated or centralised location; Staff also reporting difficulty locating relevant documents when requested, which led to delays during the inspection; the Fire Safety Policy could not be located on site; There was no structured system for policy review or version control.

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Training often scored poorly too. Examples included: “Based on the training matrix provided, 19 different training topics had not been completed by various staff, including clinical and non-clinical team members. Although staff were encouraged to complete training in advance of their appraisals, and automatic reminders were sent via the eLearning system, the leaders could not confirm how often the training matrix was reviewed or who held responsibility for booking and monitoring training.

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