CQC Sets Out Priorities to Increase Assessments and Address Aged Ratings
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has set out detailed priorities for the delivery of increased assessments across health and social care, with the regulator confirming it remains on track to publish reports for at least 9,000 assessments across all sectors by September 2026.
The update, published on 26 May 2026, forms part of the CQC’s ongoing programme of improvements and aims to address longstanding concerns around aged ratings and services that have never been assessed since registration.
The announcement will be of particular interest to operators of residential and nursing care homes, as the CQC has outlined a focused set of criteria determining which adult social care services it will prioritise for assessment in the coming months.
The CQC has confirmed that for adult social care — which includes residential and nursing care homes — it will prioritise assessments in the following categories:
• Services with urgent, emerging risks that inspection teams have identified.
• Services that have not been assessed since registration where the data the CQC holds identifies them as very high risk.
• Services registered for over a year that have not yet been assessed.
• Services with a rating over six years old.
In addition to these priority groups, the CQC has indicated it will shortly be rolling out a new, lighter-touch approach for adult social care services that currently hold a ‘Good’ rating across all five key questions, have a registered manager in post, carry ratings more than six years old, show no significant risk in the data held by the regulator, and have no ongoing enforcement activity.
This new approach is described by the CQC as enabling inspectors to focus more on people’s experiences and outcomes, supported by observation and targeted, risk-based review of records. The regulator states it will allow for increased regulatory contact in a proportionate manner with services that might not otherwise receive a routine assessment. Significantly, the CQC has stipulated that if concerns arise during planning, it will revert to the standard approach.
The CQC has confirmed it is currently seeking feedback on its draft assessment frameworks, though providers are asked to continue referring to current published guidance on how quality and performance is assessed until the new regulatory approach is implemented later this year. The regulator has urged all services to monitor these developments closely, as the new frameworks are expected to bring substantive changes to how assessments are structured and evidenced.
The update also confirms that the CQC is actively recruiting additional specialist advisors and executive reviewers to strengthen the insight and expertise available to its inspection teams. These roles are designed to support inspectors by providing specialist knowledge to underpin regulatory judgements. As part of improving its working practices with these advisors, the CQC is working to clarify their role and expectations, and to improve recruitment and engagement processes so that their expertise is used more effectively to enhance decision making and embed equitable regulation in practice.
