Latest update
Introducing Somerset Council to the CQC Team
On 2 September 2025, Somerset Council’s Adult Social Care Leadership Team was invited to deliver an introductory presentation to the CQC Assessment Team. The CQC Assessment Team includes:
- Assessment Manager – Laura Cresser
- Lead Inspector – Jez Hunt
- Lead Inspector (Support) – Matthew Atkinson
- Executive Reviewer – Jonathan Griffiths
- Specialist Advisor – Claire Migale
We are very proud of our partnerships and collaborative approach in Somerset, so we invited some of our partners and commissioned providers to prepare and deliver the presentation with us. This included people with lived experience and members of our Working Together Board. Within the presentation we included the following:
- Welcome to Somerset
- Our new council
- Our vibrant communities
- Our early help and prevention offer
- Quality assurance
- Our partnerships and how we design creative solutions
On-site visit
The timetable for the on-site visit has been confirmed. The Assessment Team will be on site from Tuesday 23 September to Thursday 25 September 2025. The assessors will want to meet with our leaders, front line staff, people using services, unpaid carers, voluntary and community groups and care providers. We are now working on populating the timetable and will be able to share that in due course.
The assessors will also review information and data to understand how we are meeting our duties under Part 1 of the Care Act. There will be a separate on-line session on Friday 12 September 2025 for us to share with the Team our data and performance framework.
Previous update
On Monday 7 April 2025, Somerset Council received notification from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that they will be assessing Somerset Council’s effectiveness at how we meet our duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014.
The CQC assessment process is an opportunity for us to showcase the impactful and innovative work happening across Somerset, and the difference we make in partnership to people’s lives and local communities. It will also be a chance for us to demonstrate the work we are doing to respond to challenges and continuously improve.
Each assessment starts with a request for an information return to support the CQC assessment team in gaining valuable insights into how we are delivering our adult social care functions and to help target future on-site activity.
On Friday 2 May 2025 we submitted our Information Return and Self-Assessment to the CQC. This work was overseen by our Adult Social Care Directors and supported by our Policy, Performance and Assurance Team. Many of our staff and partners would have contributed towards the gathering of evidence for this return and we’d like to thank everyone for their support in this process.
We know that the CQC will also reach out to our colleagues and key partners – including through a survey of local care providers and via contact with some colleagues working across our voluntary and community sector – to gather and evaluate people’s experience of local support and provision. Thank you in advance for your contribution to this activity.
On Monday 21 July, Somerset Council received news from the CQC that they will be coming on site during the week of 22 September. This will be the final part of the assessment process, which began with the submission of our self-assessment in May 2025. Following the assessment, the CQCwill produce an assessment report including an overall rating.
Regular updates on latest developments will be provided here and we will ensure that everyone is kept informed as work progresses.
Our Adult Social Care Policy, Performance and Assurance Team is responsible for supporting our CQC assessment here in Somerset. Should you have any queries, please direct these to our team mailbox and we will be happy to assist: ASCInspectionSupport@somerset.gov.uk
