Nine of the 34 quality statements survive unchanged into every one of CQC's four draft frameworks. Those are where evidence work is safe today — it cannot be wasted, whatever the consultation produces. The rest is a spectrum, and the honest advice for most of it is to wait.
Why most "prepare now" advice is wrong
CQC published four draft frameworks on 24 March 2026. They are drafts, the consultation closed on 12 June, they are being piloted over summer 2026, and implementation is expected at the end of the year. Detail will change.
Rebuilding an evidence library against a draft is a good way to do the work twice. But "wait and see" is also wrong, because a substantial part of the framework is not moving at all — and there is a second reason to act that has nothing to do with the reform, covered at the end.
So the useful question is narrow: which evidence is certain to still count?
The nine that do not move
From our crosswalk of all 34 quality statements against the four drafts, nine come through unchanged in every sector. Work here is safe:
| Key question | Quality statement — unchanged in all four drafts |
|---|---|
| Safe | Safe systems, pathways and transitions |
| Safe | Safeguarding |
| Effective | Assessing needs |
| Effective | Supporting people to live healthier lives |
| Effective | Consent to care and treatment |
| Caring | Kindness, compassion and dignity |
| Caring | Independence, choice and control |
| Responsive | Care provision, integration and continuity |
| Well-led | Partnerships and communities |
Look at what that list has in common. It is the core of care delivery — assessing what someone needs, consenting them properly, treating them with kindness, keeping them safe, and joining up with everyone else involved. These are unchanged because they are not framework artefacts. They are what regulation is for, and no amount of restructuring moves them.
Note also what is not on the list. Governance, outcomes, medicines, environments, equity and information all move, merge, split or narrow. The stable ground is the ground closest to the person.
The risk map for the other 25
| What is happening | How many | What to do now |
|---|---|---|
| Unchanged | 9 | Build freely. This work cannot be wasted. |
| Renamed | 6 | Safe to build. The label changes, the substance does not. |
| Merged into another topic | 5 | Build, but expect combined assessment — you will not be able to be strong on one half and weak on the other. |
| Absorbed with no direct successor | 4 | Keep the evidence; do not build a dedicated file against a statement that is disappearing as a heading. |
| Reframed, moved, split, narrowed, redistributed or reordered | 9 | Wait. These are where the drafts are most likely to move again. |
| Removed (adult social care only) | 1 | Environmental sustainability — see below. |
Three specific things worth knowing
Environmental sustainability, if you are adult social care
It is removed from the draft adult social care framework entirely — the only statement in the whole crosswalk that disappears for a sector rather than moving. If you are adult social care only, this is the one place to stop building. If you are multi-sector, keep it: the other three drafts retain it under Strategic direction. See how the adult social care draft differs.
Outcomes evidence is about to be judged harder
In adult social care, Delivering evidence-based care and Monitoring and improving outcomes merge into a single topic. Two separate assessments become one combined judgement. Practice evidence and outcomes evidence will be read together.
Scoring is going, and narrative is replacing it
The drafts remove numerical scoring and make judgements directly at key question level, supported by rating characteristics — descriptions of what each rating looks like. That shifts weight from "did we tick the box" toward "what is this service actually like, and can we show it". Evidence that describes and demonstrates will travel better than evidence that merely exists.
The reason to act that has nothing to do with the reform
Running alongside all of this, CQC is working through an assessment backlog and has committed to publishing at least 9,000 assessments by September 2026. Ageing ratings are the dominant prioritisation trigger.
If your rating is over six years old in adult social care, or over seven in primary care and community, your next assessment will very likely happen under the framework in force today — not the one you have been reading about. In that case the reform is a distraction and the current Single Assessment Framework is the thing to prepare against. Work out which group you are in: which services CQC will assess next.
What to actually do this quarter
- Check your rating's publication date first. It decides everything else.
- Build against the nine unchanged statements. Safeguarding, safe systems and transitions, assessing needs, consent, kindness and dignity, independence and choice, care continuity, partnerships. Safe in every scenario.
- Make sure existing evidence is findable. The recurring failure at assessment is not absent improvement — it is improvement that cannot be produced quickly. That problem is framework-independent.
- Map, do not rebuild. Know which of your evidence sits against a topic that is merging or disappearing. That is an afternoon's work with the crosswalk, not a project.
- If multi-sector, do the sector comparison now. It is the one piece of work that gets materially harder if left until implementation.
- Use the free audit tool — all 34 current statements with what to check for each, downloadable as a working spreadsheet.
Frequently asked questions
Should I rewrite my CQC evidence for the new frameworks?
Not yet. They are drafts in pilot and detail will change. Build against the nine unchanged statements, and map the rest rather than rebuilding.
Which quality statements are not changing?
Nine come through unchanged in all four drafts: safe systems, pathways and transitions; safeguarding; assessing needs; supporting people to live healthier lives; consent to care and treatment; kindness, compassion and dignity; independence, choice and control; care provision, integration and continuity; and partnerships and communities.
Is any statement being removed?
One, and only for one sector: environmental sustainability is not included in the draft adult social care framework. The other three drafts retain it.
Will my current evidence still count?
Yes for anything against the unchanged and renamed statements — 15 of the 34. Elsewhere the evidence remains relevant even where the heading moves; what changes is where it is assessed.
What if I am assessed before the new framework arrives?
Then you are assessed under the Single Assessment Framework as it stands. If your rating is ageing, that is the more likely outcome.
Related: everything changing in 2026–27 · CQC inspection checklist · what the CQC is and how it regulates
Sources: CQC, our March update; CQC, May 2026 update; CQC, the assessment framework. Change counts derived from our own crosswalk of CQC's draft documents — CQC has published no official mapping, so the categorisation is our interpretation. Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.