Across the care sector, it takes only a few seconds of conversation with senior leaders to recognise who is genuinely listening. The way people in positions of influence frame their questions often reveals whether they understand what families, carers and providers are trying to achieve when they talk about safety monitoring. And in recent months, those questions have been changing.
Throughout 2025, Care Campaign for the Vulnerable (CCFTV) has seen a shift. Providers are no longer afraid to reach out. Many are now actively exploring how choice-led, consent-based safety monitoring can support better safeguarding, greater transparency and more confidence for families and staff. That willingness is one of the most encouraging developments we have seen in over a decade of campaigning.
But one barrier continues to overshadow everything: uncertainty about the regulator.
Providers still ask the same question:
“What will the CQC say if we install safety monitoring?”
The honest answer is that responses vary across the country. In one region, an inspector may praise a provider for using safety monitoring responsibly and recognise its safeguarding value. In another region, the same practice may lead to a downgrade.
This inconsistency leaves providers nervous, staff confused and families frustrated. It also risks allowing personal opinions – rather than national policy, to determine how vulnerable people are protected. That cannot continue.
A need the sector can no longer postpone
The industry does not need the regulator to endorse any single technology. Nor does CCFTV seek blanket surveillance. Safety monitoring must always be consent-led, proportionate, and grounded in best-interest decision making.
What the sector urgently needs is clarity:
A national framework that gives providers confidence when they implement safety monitoring responsibly.
Recent high-level conversations within the regulatory sphere indicate that this inconsistency has been recognised. There is clear acknowledgment that some providers may be using the regulator as a convenient barrier – when in reality, the hesitation often lies within the organisation itself. A stronger, transparent framework would eliminate this confusion and enable providers to move forward with confidence.
Demand is growing — across families, staff and providers
Whether we look at CCFTV’s ten years of casework, our 90,000 supporters, or sector polling, the direction of travel is obvious.
- Hidden cameras are increasing.
- Families want openness.
- Providers want a clear, safe route to implement monitoring.
- Carers frequently support it once the purpose is properly explained.
Why 2026 must be the year of clarity
Safety monitoring has reached a point where the sector cannot go backwards. Providers who want to do the right thing should not fear punitive outcomes. Families should not feel driven to install hidden cameras. Carers should feel protected, not questioned.
A clear, consistent regulatory framework would:
- reduce the rise in covert filming
- support transparent, ethical safeguarding
- remove regional inconsistencies
- protect responsible providers
- build trust across families, staff and the wider public
Most importantly, it would stop the current situation where one inspector supports safety monitoring and another penalises it.
A turning point for the sector
Change will not happen overnight. But the direction is set, and there is now an opportunity for the Care Quality Commission to lead the sector with clarity, fairness and consistency. Safety monitoring, implemented properly and ethically, is not a threat to care but a safeguarding tool that should stand alongside good culture, strong leadership and skilled staff.
2026 must be the year that the care sector moves past uncertainty and towards a regulated, consent-led, confidence-building approach to safety monitoring.
For families, for staff, and for the vulnerable people at the heart of care, that shift cannot come soon enough.
