Five key questions. A range of evidence.
CQC’s current framework uses the five key questions and quality statements. Its published approach describes six categories of evidence, but scoring at evidence-category level stopped on 2 December 2024. Do not confuse evidence collection with that discontinued scoring layer.
The current published rating levels are outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate. Independent audit tools on this site do not reproduce or predict those ratings.
Safe
Are people protected from abuse and avoidable harm?
Effective
Does care, treatment and support achieve good outcomes?
Caring
Are people treated with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect?
Responsive
Are services organised so that they meet people’s needs?
Well-led
Do leadership and governance support high-quality, person-centred care?
Four proposed sector frameworks.
CQC is developing separate frameworks for adult social care, mental health, primary care and community services, and hospitals. Drafts and pilot documents must be labelled as development material.
The announced programme included pilots from June to October 2026 and evaluation in November. Those dates do not establish a legal commencement date or show that the new framework has replaced the current approach.
No confirmed live replacement date is established by the sources used for this review. Continue to check CQC’s implementation announcements before changing an assessment method.
Sources
Related guidance and next steps
Content version: . Named expert review remains pending for public launch.