Assessing quality and performance

As we use our new assessment approach we will ask providers for feedback so we can update and develop this guidance when needed.

Our new assessment approach

All our guidance to support you with our new approach to assessment is online. You can download and print the guidance, but we will sometimes refine and update it, so you must keep up-to-date.

Our new assessment framework retains our 5 key questions and the 4-point ratings scale. We will assess services against quality statements. These have replaced our key lines of enquiry (KLOEs), prompts and ratings characteristics.

We will gather evidence both on site and off site to make an assessment. The types of evidence we will consider are grouped into 6 evidence categories. We list the evidence categories we will look at for different sector groups.

Our assessments may be responsive (in response to information of concern) or planned. In both cases, we will be flexible and may expand the scope of an assessment if we need to.

We will continue to ask adult social care providers to complete an annual provider information return (PIR).

When it will affect you

We are now using our new approach to regulation across England.

It’s important to make sure your registered details and contact information are up-to-date so that we can contact you about your assessment.

Our ratings and reports

After we complete an assessment we will use a scoring system to produce a rating for your service.

For some types of service, there is no legal requirement for CQC to give a rating. Read our guidance for services that do not receive a rating.

See how we will calculate the first scores. If your service currently has a rating, we have transferred that across by applying scores to quality statements. All provides will have a chance to check the factual accuracy of our draft assessment report.