Dear HM Assistant Coroner Jones,

Regulation 28 Report following the inquest into the death of Jill Brice

Thank you for your Regulation 28 Prevention of Future Deaths.

We apologise for the delay in providing our formal response to the Regulation 28 report dated 10 October 2023, which we recognize should have been provided to you by 5 December 2023.

Due to a processing error, your Regulation 28 report was not considered for review until 2 January 2024. We take Regulation 28 reports very seriously and value the information contained within them for the purposes of helping inform proper discharge of our regulatory functions. We therefore very much regret the delay that this error has caused. We will seek to address that error at pace with process improvements to ensure that there is no repetition of the issue.

We have undertaken a rapid review of the concerns raised in your Regulation 28 report and established that the location where Mrs Brice was residing at the time of her death, namely the Dene, The Green, Rottingdean, Brighton, was not registered with us.

We have also reached the provisional view that the location, appears to fall outside the scope of registration with us, and so outside the scope of regulation by us. We have formed that provisional view following analysis of the information in your report, the Record of Inquest, Fire Investigation report and additional enquiries undertaken. Our analysis is that none of the information gathered indicates that registrable regulated activities requiring registration with us, under Schedule 1 of the Health and Social Care Act (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 or CQC Scope of Registration, were carried on.

However, in order to prepare and provide a considered formal response to your Regulation 28 report, we wish to gather further information to inform a considered and thorough assessment. In those circumstances, we respectfully request:

Care Quality Commission Citygate Gallowgate Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4PA

1. that you grant us interested person status as a sufficiently interested person under section 47(2)(m) of the Coroners Act 2009, and provide disclosure of the coronial bundle pursuant to Rule 13 of the Coroners (Inquests) Rules 2013 (Rule13); and

2. That you grant an extension until 24 January 2024 for submission of our formal response to your Regulation 28 report.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions arising.

Dear HM Assistant Coroner Jones,

Response to prevention of future death report following an inquest into the death of Jill Brice Further to the naming of myself as the Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) as a respondent in the Prevention of Future Death report issued following the death of Jill Brice on 23 December 2022, we regret that a formal response has not yet been provided to your office and sincerely apologise for this.

I recognise that the initial response was due from us by 5 December 2023 and that an extension of time was requested until 24 January 2024 in my letter to you of 12 January 2024. I would like to further apologise that this response was not provided within the extended timescales that we had anticipated.

We note that the concern raised in the Prevention of Future Deaths Report at part 5 are as follows:

The Fire Safety Report recommended that care residents be reminded to have their pendant close to them at all times. I would like reassurance that this be actioned.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide reassurance required regarding this concern or to comment upon it. The accommodation where Jill Brice resided was sheltered accommodation managed by the Teachers Housing Association, a not-for-profit charitable organisation. This organisation is not registered with us and therefore not regulated by us. The Teachers Association would not be required to register with us unless it was providing a regulated activity, as defined in section 8 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and Part 1 paragraph 2 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulation 2014.

We understand that the Teachers Association is an organisation registered with the Homes and Communities Agency as a Registered Provider (registration Number LH0426); affiliated with the National Housing Federation, registered with the Financial Services Authority under the Co-Operative Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 (Registration Number 17955R).

Care Quality Commission Citygate Gallowgate Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4PA

Our National Enforcement Team has reviewed the information available and based on that information is of the view that the Teachers Housing Association is not providing a regulated activity and as such does not require registration with us.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us further.