If the words "single assessment framework" make your heart sink, take a breath. Underneath the new language, CQC is asking the same thing it always has: is this a safe, kind, well‑run service — and can you show it? What's changed is the structure of how that judgement is made, and how often. This guide walks you through it in plain terms.
Key takeaways
- One framework for everyone. The same approach now applies across health and social care.
- The five key questions stay — Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well‑led.
- Quality statements are the new unit. Short "we statements" describing good care, replacing the old key lines of enquiry.
- Evidence is categorised and scored on a four‑point scale, which rolls up into your ratings.
- Assessment is more continuous — keeping evidence current all year matters more than any single visit.
What the single assessment framework actually is
The single assessment framework is CQC's one way of assessing all the services it regulates — care homes, home care, hospitals, GP practices and more — under a common structure. For care providers, the headline is that it replaced the older system of key lines of enquiry (KLOEs) with a tidier, evidence‑led model built around quality statements.
The point of "single" is consistency: the same expectations, described the same way, whatever kind of service you run.
The five key questions (unchanged)
Everything still hangs off the five familiar questions:
Quality statements — the heart of it
This is the biggest change to get your head around. Under each key question sit quality statements — short descriptions of what good looks like, written from your point of view as commitments (which is why people call them "we statements"). Think of the shape "We work in partnership with people…" or "We make sure people are safe…".
Each quality statement is a small, specific thing you're expected to be able to demonstrate. They replace the old KLOEs and prompts, and they're what your evidence gets judged against. In practice, that's good news: they turn a vague "are you safe?" into a set of concrete claims you can line your audits and evidence up behind.
The framework turns one big question into a list of specific claims — and asks you to prove each one.
The evidence categories
CQC decides how well you meet each quality statement by looking at defined categories of evidence. For adult social care, the ones that matter most are:
- People's experiences — what people who use your service (and their families) tell CQC and you.
- Feedback from staff and leaders — what your team says about working there.
- Feedback from partners — what other professionals who work with you say.
- Processes — your systems, records and audits: the proof that what you claim actually happens.
(Direct observation of care also features where CQC visits.) Notice that four of these come from people, not paperwork. Feedback isn't a nice‑to‑have under this framework — it's core evidence.
How scoring and ratings work
Here's the mechanism in plain terms. CQC scores the evidence behind each quality statement on a four‑point scale. Those scores combine into a score for each key question, and the key‑question scores convert into the ratings you already know:
- Outstanding
- Good
- Requires improvement
- Inadequate
The practical upshot: because scores build up from many small quality‑statement judgements, a strong rating comes from being consistently good across the board — not from one heroic area masking weak ones.
What's genuinely different for your home
Three shifts matter day to day:
- Assessment is more continuous. Rather than waiting years for one big inspection, CQC can update its view as new evidence arrives. Your evidence needs to be current all year, not polished up once.
- Evidence can come at any time. Feedback, data and notifications feed in between visits — so the story your service tells is always "on".
- It's more granular. Quality statements make it clearer exactly what you need to show, which is an opportunity: you can map your audits and evidence straight to them.
What to actually do about it
- Map your evidence to the quality statements that apply to your service. Know which statement each audit and record supports.
- Keep evidence current. A rolling monthly rhythm of audits and updates beats an annual scramble under a continuous‑assessment model.
- Gather feedback routinely from people, families and staff — and record what you changed as a result.
- Close the loop on findings. Every gap becomes a tracked action; that closed loop is exactly what "Well‑led" looks like.
Line your evidence up with the framework
Haverton Care Hub maps your audits and evidence to CQC's key questions, so proving each quality statement becomes part of your normal routine — not a project.
Register your interest →Frequently asked questions
What is CQC's single assessment framework?
It's one framework CQC uses to assess all the services it regulates. It keeps the five key questions and organises them into quality statements, judged on defined categories of evidence.
What are quality statements?
Short "we statements" describing what good care looks like from the provider's point of view — for example, working in partnership with people. They replace the old key lines of enquiry and are what your evidence is judged against.
How does CQC scoring work now?
CQC scores the evidence behind each quality statement on a four‑point scale. Those scores combine into a score for each key question, which converts into a rating: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate.
Does it mean more frequent checks?
It moves away from one big periodic inspection toward more continuous, evidence‑led assessment. CQC can update its view when new evidence arrives, so keeping evidence current all year matters more than ever.
General guidance to help you understand the framework. Not legal advice, and no guarantee of any inspection outcome. Always check current CQC guidance for the exact quality statements, evidence categories and scoring.