The CQC Single Assessment Framework — how it actually works
How CQC assesses and rates every service it regulates today: the five key questions, the 34 quality statements, the six evidence categories, and how those become a rating. This is the framework currently in force.
This page covers the framework in force today. Looking for what is changing? See CQC’s new assessment frameworks and the 2026–27 changes.
The Single Assessment Framework is still in force and still how you are assessed today. But CQC is replacing it with four sector-specific frameworks during 2026. For what is changing, when, and what it means for your evidence, see CQC’s new assessment frameworks.
What is the CQC Single Assessment Framework?
For the fundamentals — what the CQC is, who it regulates and how ratings work — see our CQC overview.
The Single Assessment Framework (SAF) is the model the Care Quality Commission uses to assess and rate every health and social care service it regulates — care homes, domiciliary agencies, GP practices, dental practices, clinics and hospitals alike. It replaced the older, separate inspection regimes with one shared structure, so the same questions and the same rating scale apply across sectors.
The framework has three layers. At the top sit the five key questions — is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led? Beneath those sit quality statements, written as “we statements” that describe what good care commits to. And underneath those, CQC gathers evidence, organised into a small number of evidence categories (such as people’s experience, feedback from staff, observation, and processes). Each piece is scored, and those scores roll up to a rating.
For the practical, day-to-day checklist version of all this, see our CQC inspection checklist and how to prepare.
The five key questions
These do not change in 2026. If you organise everything around them, your preparation is future-proof.
From evidence to a rating
Evidence is scored on a four-point scale, those scores build the score for each quality statement, and the quality statements build a score for each of the five key questions. The five key questions are equally weighted, and CQC then aggregates them into an overall rating of Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate. A “rating limiter” can cap an otherwise-strong score where a specific area is weak. We break the maths down in CQC ratings explained.
CQC is removing scoring altogether. In its March 2026 update, CQC confirmed consultation support for its “proposal to remove scoring from our assessment methodology and make rating judgements directly at key question level”. The scoring mechanics described above still apply today, but they are on their way out — do not build internal dashboards or board reports around reproducing CQC’s score arithmetic.
What’s changing in 2026
The single framework is being replaced by four sector-specific frameworks, quality statements are being replaced by key lines of enquiry, and scoring is being removed entirely. CQC published the four drafts in its March 2026 update, feedback closed on 12 June 2026, the frameworks are being piloted over the summer, and implementation is expected at the end of the year.
The four sector frameworks
CQC’s consultation, Better regulation, better care, drew over 1,600 responses and showed what CQC called “overwhelming support” for moving away from a single framework. The four drafts cover:
- Adult social care
- Mental health care
- Primary care and community services
- Hospitals (secondary and specialist care)
What replaces quality statements
Two new things, in CQC’s own words. First, “key lines of enquiry framed as structured questions that describe what we will look for on our assessments — these replace the current quality statements”. If you regulated before 2023, KLOEs will be familiar; this is a return to that style.
Second, and genuinely new: rating characteristics — descriptions of “what outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate care looks like in each sector”. CQC built these by asking people what good care looks like, then working outwards to the other three levels. These carry the weight that scoring used to.
The timeline
- Late 2025 — Better regulation, better care consultation; over 1,600 responses.
- 24 March 2026 — four draft sector-specific frameworks published; quality statements confirmed as being replaced by key lines of enquiry; scoring confirmed as being removed.
- 12 June 2026 — feedback on the draft frameworks closed.
- Summer 2026 — CQC refines each framework, then pilots and tests them in practice.
- End of 2026 — implementation of the new regulatory approach.
What is not changing
The five key questions stay exactly as they are — safe, effective, caring, responsive, well-led — and so do the four rating levels. That is the reason not to panic. It is also the reason not to invest heavily in memorising the 34 quality statements, or in reproducing CQC’s scoring arithmetic internally, when neither will survive the year.
Prepare around the five key questions, keep your evidence current, dated and owned, and adopt your sector’s framework the moment CQC publishes it.
Meanwhile: your rating’s age now affects your odds of being assessed
Separately from the framework work, CQC is clearing an assessment backlog — it set a target of 9,000 published assessments by September 2026 and reported in December 2025 that it was ahead of schedule. Its May 2026 update sets out who it is prioritising, and aged ratings feature in every sector: adult social care rated over 6 years ago, primary care over 7 years, mental health “good” over 5 years and “outstanding” over 8.
The counter-intuitive consequence: an old, clean rating moves you up the queue, not down. We cover this and the wider assurance picture in PSIRF, SAF and the new bar for assurance.
Keep pace with the framework — automatically.
Frameworks change; your obligation to prove good care doesn’t. CompliantCare maps your evidence to the five key questions and keeps it current, so a wording change to the questions underneath never means starting your preparation over.
- Policies drafted, in date, and proven read by every member of staff
- Incidents actioned, with learning documented — not just logged
- Audits, risk and training connected, findings tracked to closure
- A one-click evidence pack for every one of the five key questions
Free tool: see all 34 quality statements listed and mapped in our CQC quality statements crosswalk.
Last reviewed: 30 July 2026. We review the CQC guides monthly against CQC’s published guidance; where ours differs from theirs, theirs is correct.
Common questions
What is the CQC Single Assessment Framework?
The single model CQC uses to assess and rate all the services it regulates. It keeps the five key questions — Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-led — and evidences them through quality statements and evidence categories, scored and aggregated into a rating.
What is changing with the framework in 2026?
Three things. The single framework is splitting into four sector-specific frameworks (adult social care, mental health, primary care and community, hospitals). Quality statements are being replaced by key lines of enquiry framed as structured questions, supported by new rating characteristics. And scoring is being removed, with rating judgements made directly at key question level. CQC published the drafts in March 2026, feedback closed on 12 June, pilots run over the summer and implementation is expected at the end of 2026.
Do I need to learn the 34 quality statements?
Not for the long term — key lines of enquiry are replacing them during 2026. Prepare around the five key questions, which are not changing, and adopt your sector's framework when CQC publishes it.
Is CQC still scoring evidence?
For now, yes — the current published guidance still applies until the new approach is implemented. But CQC confirmed in March 2026 that it is removing scoring from its assessment methodology and will make rating judgements directly at key question level, supported by rating characteristics that describe what each rating looks like in each sector. Don't build internal reporting around reproducing CQC's score arithmetic.
What are rating characteristics?
A new element in the draft sector frameworks: descriptions of what outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate care looks like in each sector. CQC developed them by asking people what good care looks like, then defining the other levels around it. They replace scoring as the basis for reaching a rating.
What are the six evidence categories?
Groupings CQC uses to organise the evidence behind each quality statement — for example people's experience of care, feedback from staff and leaders, observation, and the processes in place. Inspectors weigh evidence across these categories rather than looking at paperwork alone. Note CQC stopped scoring at evidence-category level in December 2024, ahead of the wider removal of scoring.
How are ratings decided under the framework?
Today, evidence is scored on a four-point scale, scores build up through the quality statements to each key question, and the five equally-weighted key questions aggregate into an overall rating of Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement or Inadequate. Under the new approach, scoring is removed and CQC will judge each key question directly against published rating characteristics.
References
- Care Quality Commission — Assessment framework
- Care Quality Commission — The five key questions we ask
- Care Quality Commission — Our March 2026 update
- Care Quality Commission — Assessing quality and performance
For general information only and reflects our understanding of CQC's approach as of July 2026. The framework is changing during 2026 — always check cqc.org.uk for the current framework for your sector. Reviewed by the CompliantCare clinical team.