CQC Unveils Draft Sector-Specific Assessment Frameworks in Major Regulatory Overhaul
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published four draft sector-specific assessment frameworks as part of its most significant regulatory reform in recent years, replacing the existing single assessment framework and removing scoring from its methodology. Adult social care providers are invited to respond before 12 June 2026.
The Commission has moved decisively to overhaul the way it inspects and rates health and social care services across England, publishing four draft sector-specific assessment frameworks in March 2026 following a period of public consultation that attracted widespread support from the sector.
The new frameworks — one of which is dedicated specifically to adult social care — mark a significant departure from the regulator’s previous single assessment framework. The CQC said the move follows its Better Regulation, Better Care consultation, the response to which demonstrated overwhelming support for the proposal to introduce frameworks tailored to the distinct characteristics of each sector it regulates.
The four draft frameworks cover the following areas of health and social care provision:
• Adult social care
• Mental health care
• Primary care and community services
• Hospitals (secondary and specialist care)
The CQC’s five key questions — safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led — remain at the heart of its assessment methodology. However, the regulator has introduced two significant structural changes to the way assessments are structured and communicated.
Key lines of enquiry will replace the current quality statements, framed as structured questions that describe precisely what the CQC will be looking for during assessments. In addition, rating characteristics will set out what outstanding, good, requires improvement, and inadequate care looks like within each individual sector.
Critically for care home managers and providers, the CQC has confirmed it will remove numerical scoring from its assessment methodology altogether. Instead, rating judgements will be made directly at key question level, supported by the new rating characteristics — a change the regulator says will produce clearer, more transparent, and more consistent outcomes.
The CQC said the rating characteristics were developed using direct input from service users, the public, and stakeholders gathered through a series of online and in-person engagement sessions. Participants were asked what they believed good quality care looks like — responses that were then used to define the characteristics for each rating level across all four sector frameworks.
The regulator expressed gratitude to all those who participated in its consultation process, whether online or through engagement events held around the country.
The CQC is now actively seeking further feedback on the four draft frameworks from providers, colleagues, members of the public, and other stakeholders.
Specifically, the regulator wants to know whether the draft content will:
• Guide the CQC in carrying out assessments and making clearer, more transparent, and consistent quality judgements
• Help providers understand what the CQC will be looking for, enabling them to improve the quality of care they deliver
• Assist both the CQC and providers in identifying and addressing inequalities in care
• Accurately reflect the full range of services and sectors regulated across health and adult social care
Views on any areas requiring further development or improvement are also welcomed. Feedback can be submitted via the CQC’s online participation site, accessible through the consultation page at cqc.org.uk. The window for online responses and in-person engagement events closes on 12 June 2026.
Following the close of the consultation period, the CQC has indicated it will review all feedback and further refine each of the four frameworks. The regulator has stated its intention to pilot and test the frameworks in practice during the summer of 2026, marking a significant step towards implementation.
Whilst in-person engagement events have now taken place, care home providers wishing to stay informed of future events and consultation opportunities are encouraged to sign up to the CQC’s bulletins via its website.
KEY FACTS AT A GLANCE
• Four new sector-specific frameworks replace the single assessment framework
• Numerical scoring is being removed from CQC assessment methodology
• The five key questions (safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led) are retained
• A dedicated adult social care framework is included in the draft consultation
• Feedback deadline: 12 June 2026
• Pilots planned for summer 2026
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Respond online: www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/how-we-involve-you/consultations/give-your-views-draft-sector-specific-assessment-frameworks
