Capturing People’s Experiences for Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) State of Care Report 2023/24

We are pleased to have been able to contribute to the publication of the Care Quality Commission’s annual State of Care report which was published last week.

Working in partnership with the CQC, we supported the process of capturing peoples’ experiences from across England to ensure that their insight and experience was prominent throughout the report.

As a leading organisation supporting lived experience and personalised care, this work enabled us to deliver a case study engagement piece using our diverse skill-set and collaborative approach with our Lived Experience Partners, Evaluation and Mental Health teams. We effectively gathered people’s experiences as part of a service evaluation by co-producing a set of questions which included emotional touchpoints which explored their care and treatment.

The annual State of Care report evaluates health and social care services in England, examines trends, showcases examples of excellent and outstanding care, and identifies areas which require improvement.

The focus areas for the case studies commissioned for the report included the experiences of children, young people and of Black men using mental health services, as well as adult inpatients who had reported their health had deteriorated while waiting for care.

Emma Walker, Associate Director at Aqua who led this piece of work commented:

“The real strength of what we do at Aqua is being able to pull from different areas of expertise to deliver a great outcome. In this instance, we combined the skills and experience of our Evaluation colleagues to put rigour around the interview process, coupled with our Lived Experience Partners to provide the voice of service users, mental health professionals to ensure participants were supported before, during and after the interview process, and strong programme management to create an effective delivery team. We are delighted with the results and pleased that Care Quality Commission are putting the voice of lived experience front and centre in the improvement of care.”

For more information about this piece of work or to see how we can help your organisation put lived experience at the centre of care, please contact a member of our team.