CQC has confirmed that the single assessment framework, with its 34 quality statements and scoring, is being replaced. For most providers the five key questions stay the same. What changes is how inspectors decide what a Good or Outstanding service looks like, and how they reach a rating.
What is changing
- Four sector-specific frameworks replace one framework for everyone. Adult social care has its own, alongside mental health, primary and community care, and hospitals.
- The five key questions stay: safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
- 34 quality statements become 24 key lines of enquiry, each with prompts and topic areas written for the sector.
- Rating characteristics describe what Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate look like for each key line of enquiry.
- Scoring is removed. Ratings will be reached through inspectors' professional judgement against the rating characteristics, rather than by adding up scores.
When it happens
CQC published the draft frameworks in March 2026 and consulted on them until 12 June 2026, followed by piloting and testing. Implementation is expected towards the end of 2026, but CQC will confirm the dates. Until your service moves across, you are still assessed under the current framework.
The practical shift: less emphasis on evidencing each statement separately, and more on showing, in your own words and records, that people are safe and their care is improving.
What it means for home care and complex care
Narrative judgement rewards services that can explain their care clearly and back it up. Expect closer attention to how care is coordinated, how people move between services, and how delegated clinical tasks are managed. These are the areas where home care and complex care providers are most often caught out.
Five things to do now
- Read the draft rating characteristics for adult social care and highlight where your service already meets Good, and where it does not.
- Map your existing evidence to the new key lines of enquiry. Most of it will still be useful. Gaps will usually be around outcomes and learning.
- Check your delegation records. For every delegated clinical task, you should be able to show who delegated it, who is trained and signed off, and when it is next reviewed.
- Show learning, not just logging. For incidents and complaints, make sure you can show what changed as a result.
- Test yourself. A mock inspection against the new characteristics will show you where an inspector would focus.
How Eviqa can help
Eviqa Advisory maps your current evidence to the new framework and closes the gaps calmly, not in the fortnight before an assessment. Eviqa Assure builds that evidence as your team works, so it is ready whenever it is needed.
Sources: QCS: understanding the CQC draft 2026 assessment framework; CQC rating characteristics 2026. Always check CQC's own guidance for the latest position.