Following complaints about potential discrimination during inspections, the CQC commissioned Versiti to work with 36 ethnic minority GP surgery leaders to determine how to ensure equity in ratings, experiences and outcomes.

We found that the inspection process may indeed ‘inadvertently disadvantage’ ethnic minority led GP surgeries because it did not take account of factors that disproportionately affect these surgeries. Counterintuitively, ‘treating everyone the same’ led to unfairness.

As a result, the CQC adapted its approach to take into account contextual factors, like area deprivation, the profile of the local population, the efforts made by GPs to tackle health inequalities, and the size of practices, among other factors. It is also working more closely with system partners to provide tailored support to ethnic minority-led GP practices.