Quality Assurance Lead

The Quality Assurance Lead is a specialist field-based role within the Quality and Governance Directorate, responsible for delivering HC-One’s internal quality assurance framework across the Group’s portfolio of homes. Reporting to the Head of Regulation and Compliance, the postholder conducts structured internal quality inspections against HC-One’s internal quality framework, providing homes with an objective, expert assessment of their compliance position ahead of regulatory inspection and identifying areas where improvement is needed.

This is a high-impact, hands-on role requiring a confident and experienced quality professional who can assess the quality of care being delivered with an inspector’s eye, produce clear and well-evidenced inspection reports, and provide Home Managers and Area Directors with honest, constructive feedback that drives meaningful improvement. The Quality Assurance Lead works closely with the Head of Regulation and Compliance, Quality Improvement Leads and operational teams to ensure findings are acted upon and homes remain inspection ready.

Internal Quality Inspections

• Deliver a planned programme of internal quality inspections across homes, in line with the schedule agreed with the Head of Regulation and Compliance and prioritised according to regulatory risk, inspection history and operational intelligence.

• Conduct inspections against the internal quality framework, using the relevant regulatory inspection methodologies for England, Wales and Scotland to assess each home’s compliance position as a regulator would.

• Assess all aspects of home performance during visits, including quality and safety of care, leadership and management, staffing, governance, environment, and resident and family experience.

• Apply ratings and judgements consistently and rigorously, ensuring assessments are objective, evidence-based and accurately reflect the home’s position at the time of inspection.

Inspection Reporting and Feedback

• Produce clear, accurate and well-structured reports documenting findings, evidence, ratings or judgements and targeted improvement recommendations.

• Submit completed reports for review and sign-off within agreed timescales, ensuring findings are robustly evidenced and reports are consistently high quality.

• Deliver constructive feedback to Home Managers and Area Directors, helping leaders understand what inspectors would be likely to find and what needs to be strengthened.

• Ensure improvement actions are specific, measurable, realistic and prioritised according to risk.

Follow-Up and Improvement Tracking

• Monitor progress of improvement actions following inspections, following up with Home Managers and Area Directors at agreed intervals.

• Escalate homes where actions are not progressing, where re-inspection shows deterioration, or where findings indicate imminent regulatory risk.

• Conduct re-inspections where homes have significant improvement requirements or poor regulatory outcomes, providing an updated compliance position.

• Work closely with Quality Improvement Leads where sustained improvement support is required, ensuring a coordinated response from the Quality and Governance Directorate.

Framework Maintenance and Inspection Readiness

• Support the Head of Regulation and Compliance to keep the internal quality framework up to date, identifying any changes to regulatory methodologies, rating descriptors or evidence requirements.

• Contribute to audit tools, evidence checklists, self-assessment guides and inspection preparation resources, drawing on learning from home visits.

• Stay current with CQC, CIW and Care Inspectorate inspection frameworks and share regulatory insight from inspection activity.

• Support Home Managers and Area Directors to prepare for regulatory inspection, including evidence gathering, self-assessment and presentation of the home’s work.

KPI Monitoring, Intelligence and Stakeholder Engagement

• Contribute inspection-based intelligence to Group quality and compliance reporting, helping to contextualise performance data and identify homes where trends align with inspection findings.

• Maintain accurate records of inspection activity,…