Introduction
The CQC’s draft sector-specific assessment frameworks are more than a consultation update. They signal a likely shift in how quality will be defined, judged and evidenced across health and adult social care in 2026. CQC says it has developed four draft frameworks covering adult social care, mental health care, primary care and community services, and hospitals, following strong support for a more sector-specific approach. It is now seeking feedback before refining and piloting them.
For providers, the message is clear: the familiar language of regulation remains, but the way quality is structured and assessed may become more explicit, more practical and more tailored to the realities of each sector. That matters for leaders, quality teams and frontline staff alike.
Before we dive in, we would love to hear your thoughts below!
Poll: Do you have a digital solution in place to manage your policies and procedures?
Cast your vote and see what your peers said!
Why is CQC changing the assessment framework?
CQC is changing the assessment framework to make it clearer, fairer and more relevant to the sectors it regulates.
CQC describes its assessment frameworks as its statutory definition of quality and safety. In its background paper, it says the frameworks are designed to help the public and providers understand what good care looks like, support fair and clear judgements, recognise differences between sectors, help it spot breaches of regulations, and stay relevant over time. It also says providers need to show more than the minimum requirements in regulations to be rated good.
That context is important. This is not just a redesign of inspection paperwork. The framework underpins how CQC sets expectations, inspects services, reports on quality and, where necessary, takes enforcement action linked to the fundamental standards.
What are the draft sector-specific assessment frameworks?
The draft sector-specific assessment frameworks set out how CQC proposes to assess quality more clearly and more specifically across different types of services.
Each draft framework is built around the same core components:
- the 5 key questions
- key lines of enquiry framed as structured questions
- rating characteristics
- “I statements” reflecting people’s lived experience
The proposed model replaces current quality statements with structured lines of enquiry and places greater emphasis on rating characteristics to support clearer, more transparent judgements.
Some elements remain familiar. Providers will still recognise:
- Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led
- the four ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement and Inadequate
What is changing is the level of detail and the clarity of expectations. The new frameworks are designed to be more relevant to each sector and more explicit about what good care looks like in practice. They also move away from scoring, with ratings expected to be determined directly at key question level.
What looks different for providers?
For providers, the biggest change is a move toward more detailed, sector-specific and practice-focused assessment.
Instead of broad quality statements applied across many settings, providers may be assessed against more structured, sector-specific lines of enquiry. Instead of relying on scores aggregated through a methodology, CQC is placing greater emphasis on rating characteristics to support direct judgements at key question level.
This creates a clearer line of sight between what inspectors ask, how evidence is interpreted and how ratings are determined. It also reflects a growing emphasis on the real-world impact of care — not just whether systems are in place, but whether they improve the safety, experience and outcomes of people using services.
What the draft adult social care framework tells us?
The draft adult social care framework shows how detailed the new model could become. Under the Safe key question alone, the draft includes topic areas such as safety culture, safeguarding, safe environments, infection prevention and control, medicines, and managing risks during care and treatment. Under Well-led, it includes leadership, governance and management, partnerships and communities, and improvement, innovation and learning.
This matters because it points to a more rounded view of compliance. Providers may need to show not only that policies exist, but that staff understand them, use them consistently and that leaders can demonstrate oversight, learning and improvement. Although this is an inference, it is grounded in the framework’s repeated focus on safety culture, governance, accountability, learning and evidence-based improvement.
What “Outstanding” may look like under the new approach?
The draft adult social care framework does not give a single overall definition of Outstanding. Instead, it describes what Outstanding looks like across different topic areas, with a consistent emphasis on strong leadership, embedded learning and a proactive approach to quality and safety.
In safety culture, the draft says a positive safety culture is firmly embedded, safety concerns are recognised as essential, and risks are proactively managed, investigated and learned from.
In improvement, innovation and learning, the draft says there is a fully embedded and systematic approach to quality improvement, leaders actively seek feedback and challenge, learning is continuous, and good practice is shared internally and externally to support improvement.
Taken together, Outstanding care appears to go beyond high compliance. It reflects a service where safety, learning, leadership and improvement are deeply embedded in everyday practice. Outstanding care is characterised not only by strong systems and leadership, but by clear, consistent evidence that these translate into positive outcomes and experiences for people using services.
In practice, this means risks are anticipated, people’s voices shape decisions, staff are encouraged to speak up, and leaders use evidence, feedback and lived experience to drive continuous improvement.
What “Inadequate” may look like under the new approach?
The same pattern works in reverse.
In safety culture, the draft indicates that inadequate care is linked to safety not being a sufficient priority and the service having a poor track record in this area.
In governance and management, the draft says systems for managing service performance and risk may be inadequate or not regularly reviewed, quality assurance may be inconsistently applied or ineffective, improvement action may be absent or reactive, and leaders may have serious gaps in knowledge and oversight.
In improvement, innovation and learning, the draft says there may be little or no evidence of effective learning, innovation or service improvement, staff may not feel safe to highlight what should improve, and ideas may be ignored.
In other words, Inadequate appears to mean unreliable safeguards, weak leadership grip, poor learning from problems, and systems that fail to protect people from avoidable harm or to drive sustained improvement.
What this means for providers in practical terms?
In practical terms, providers will need to demonstrate how policy, staff behaviour, leadership oversight and outcomes are connected. Providers will increasingly need to show how their systems and processes translate into meaningful improvements in people’s care, safety and overall experience — not just that they meet regulatory requirements.
To prepare, organisations should focus on a number of practical areas::
- Review whether policies and procedures are current, usable and easy to access.
- Check whether staff can explain what good practice looks like in their own role.
- Organise evidence around the 5 key questions and likely service-specific lines of enquiry.
- Review governance, learning and risk systems, not just frontline documentation.
- Identify whether your current approach is too generic for the realities of your service.
In practical terms, providers may be better placed if they can show not just that they have the right documents, but that staff know how to use them, leaders monitor whether they are being followed, and learning leads to measurable improvement.
What questions providers should be asking now?
The draft frameworks give providers a useful opportunity to test their own readiness before the final model is introduced. CQC says it wants the frameworks to help providers understand what it will be looking for and improve the quality of care they deliver, so this kind of self-assessment is highly relevant.
Questions worth asking now include:
- Are our compliance systems too generic for the risks and realities of our sector?
- Can staff quickly find and use the right policy or procedure when they need it?
- Are we able to evidence learning, governance, safety culture and improvement in practice?
- Are we ready for ratings to be shaped more directly by qualitative characteristics than by scoring?
These are the kinds of questions that move preparation beyond inspection anxiety and into operational readiness.
How can digital tools can help providers prepare?
Digital tools can help providers prepare by making policies, procedures and guidance easier to access, understand and apply in practice. If CQC is moving toward more explicit, sector-specific expectations, providers will need systems that help staff turn policy into practice quickly and consistently.
This is where digital tools can help in a practical way:
- Instant access to policies and procedures.
- Consistent answers for frontline staff.
- Stronger understanding of what good practice looks like.
- Better evidence of learning and implementation.
- More confidence across dispersed teams and settings.
Used well, digital policy and procedure tools can help reduce the gap between documented compliance and real-world delivery. That fits with CQC’s stated aim of creating frameworks that help providers understand what it will be looking for and improve the quality of care they deliver.
Where does Cloda fit?
As digital tools become more important in supporting compliance and care delivery, the next step for providers is choosing solutions that genuinely bridge the gap between policy and practice.
If CQC is moving toward more explicit, sector-specific expectations, providers will need systems that help staff apply policies quickly and consistently in real-world situations. That means not just access to documents, but access to clear, reliable answers at the point of care, along with visibility of where understanding or implementation gaps may exist.
This is where tools like Cloda can add practical value. By providing instant, mobile-friendly answers to policy and procedure questions, Cloda supports frontline staff to make informed decisions at the point of care. Cloda also helps organisations strengthen consistency across teams and services, while giving leaders greater confidence that guidance is understood and applied in practice.
As regulation becomes more detailed, policy support needs to become more usable. Faster access, clearer guidance and better understanding are not just efficiency gains — they are part of building the kind of safety culture, governance and consistency that the draft frameworks increasingly emphasise.
What should providers do next?
CQC says it will carefully consider feedback on the draft frameworks and refine each one before piloting and testing them. The consultation page says providers should read the background material and the relevant draft framework before submitting views, and that the feedback period closes on 12 June 2026.
A practical next-step checklist for providers would be:
- Review the relevant draft assessment framework for your sector.
- Identify what parts of your current compliance approach may be too broad or outdated.
- Review how you evidence safety culture, governance, risk management and improvement.
- Gather feedback from frontline teams.
- Submit feedback to CQC before 12 June 2026.
- Start strengthening policy access and staff readiness now, before piloting and rollout.
Providers do not need to wait for the final version to start preparing. The draft framework already gives a strong indication of the type of evidence and operational maturity CQC may expect.
Final thoughts
The CQC’s draft sector-specific assessment frameworks suggest that 2026 may bring a clearer, more tailored and more evidence-led model of regulation. The five key questions remain, but the structure around them is becoming more detailed, and the draft adult social care framework shows how strongly future judgements may focus on safety culture, governance, learning and improvement in practice.
Providers do not need to wait for the final version to start preparing. Reviewing policy access, staff understanding, leadership oversight and evidence of improvement now will put services in a stronger position when the final frameworks are piloted and introduced. CQC says it will use feedback on the current drafts to refine them further before testing.
Cloda supports this transition by giving frontline teams instant, mobile access to policies and procedures, helping organisations turn compliance into consistent, high-quality care in practice.
If you would like to learn more about Cloda or book a demo, contact info@cloda.ai.
Key takeaways
- The CQC is consulting on 4 draft sector-specific assessment frameworks for 2026.
- The proposed model keeps the 5 key questions but replaces quality statements with structured key lines of enquiry.
- The draft adult social care framework points to stronger emphasis on safety culture, governance, learning and improvement.
- Providers should review not only documentation, but also staff understanding, policy access and operational readiness.
- Digital tools such as Cloda can help turn policies into consistent practice at the point of care.
Frequently asked questions
What are the CQC’s draft sector-specific assessment frameworks?
They are proposed new CQC assessment frameworks for adult social care, mental health care, primary care and community services, and hospitals. They are designed to make assessment more sector-specific, transparent and practical.
What is changing in the CQC assessment model?
The 5 key questions remain, but the draft model introduces structured key lines of enquiry, rating characteristics and a move away from scoring.
What should providers do now?
Providers should review the relevant draft framework, assess whether their compliance systems are too generic, strengthen policy access and governance, and submit feedback before 12 June 2026.
How can Cloda help providers prepare?
Cloda helps staff access policies and procedures instantly, supports consistent decision-making at the point of care, and improves visibility of implementation and understanding across teams.
Book a Demo (1)
"*" indicates required fields
