Care home audit tool: all 34 quality statements, and what to check for each
A self-audit framework structured the way you are assessed — the five key questions, every quality statement underneath them, and the fundamental standard each one relates to. Use it on screen, or take the spreadsheet and work in it.
There is no official CQC audit tool. CQC publishes the assessment framework and the regulations, but not a checklist of what evidences each one. Anything sold as an "official CQC checklist" is somebody's interpretation.
So is this — and we would rather say so. The quality statements and regulation titles below are CQC's, quoted accurately. The "what to check" column is ours, written from what actually gets asked in inspections. Treat it as a prompt, not a rulebook.
The quality statements are CQC's, from the assessment framework. The regulation titles are from the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. The "what to check" column is ours.
Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.
You are free to download this and adapt it inside your own organisation — see the terms of use for what that licence covers, and for why nothing here is regulatory advice.
Take it with you
The spreadsheet is a working template: every line has blank columns for your finding, the evidence location, an owner and a due date — so a completed audit becomes an action plan rather than a filed form.
Safe 8 quality statements
| Quality statement | What to check | Regulation |
|---|---|---|
| Learning culture | Can you show an incident that changed something? Trace one from report, through investigation, to a documented change in practice - and to staff being told. | Reg 17Good governance |
| Safe systems, pathways and transitions | Are admissions, discharges and transfers documented with the information the receiving service needs? Check three recent transfers. | Reg 12Safe care and treatment |
| Safeguarding | Is every safeguarding concern logged, referred where required, and notified to CQC? Reg 18 of the 2009 regs makes any abuse or ALLEGATION of abuse notifiable. | Reg 13Safeguarding from abuse |
| Involving people to manage risks | Do risk assessments show the person's own view of the risk, and a decision that balances safety against independence? | Reg 12Safe care and treatment |
| Safe environments | Are premises, equipment and servicing records current? Fire, legionella, lifting equipment, electrical - with dates and who signed. | Reg 15Premises and equipment |
| Safe and effective staffing | Does the rota match the assessed dependency of the people you support, on the days you were short as well as the days you were not? | Reg 18Staffing |
| Infection prevention and control | Is there a current IPC audit with findings tracked to closure, not just a completed form? | Reg 12Safe care and treatment |
| Medicines optimisation | MAR chart audit: gaps, handwritten entries, PRN protocols, covert administration authorised properly, controlled drugs reconciled. | Reg 12Safe care and treatment |
Effective 6 quality statements
| Quality statement | What to check | Regulation |
|---|---|---|
| Assessing needs | Was each person assessed before or on admission, and has the assessment been reviewed since their needs changed? | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| Delivering evidence-based care and treatment | Can staff point to the guidance a specific care approach is based on - NICE, national guidance, or a clinician's instruction? | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| How staff, teams and services work together | Is there a record of GP, district nurse, SALT and pharmacy input, and evidence you acted on it? | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| Supporting people to live healthier lives | Health checks, screening, dental and optical appointments - offered, recorded, and followed up when declined. | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| Monitoring and improving outcomes | What outcome do you actually measure? Falls, weight loss, pressure ulcers, hospital admissions - with a trend, not a single number. | Reg 17Good governance |
| Consent to care and treatment | Mental capacity assessments decision-specific and dated; best interests decisions recorded with who was consulted; DoLS applications tracked to outcome. | Reg 11Need for consent |
Caring 5 quality statements
| Quality statement | What to check | Regulation |
|---|---|---|
| Kindness, compassion and dignity | Observation, not paperwork. Spend an hour in a communal area and record what you see - how staff speak to people, and about them. | Reg 10Dignity and respect |
| Treating people as individuals | Does the care plan contain anything that could only be true of this person? Life history, preferences, what a good day looks like. | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| Independence, choice and control | Where has a person's choice been recorded as overriding the default routine? If nowhere, that is the finding. | Reg 10Dignity and respect |
| Responding to people's immediate needs | Call bell response times, and what happens when someone is distressed rather than requesting a task. | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| Workforce wellbeing and enablement | Supervision and appraisal up to date? Note: this moves to Well-led under the draft 2026 frameworks. | Reg 18Staffing |
Responsive 7 quality statements
| Quality statement | What to check | Regulation |
|---|---|---|
| Person-centred care | Care plans co-produced with the person or their representative, and signed. Note: this moves to Caring under the draft 2026 frameworks. | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| Care provision, integrity and continuity | Continuity of staff for people who need it, and a plan for what happens when the regular carer is absent. | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| Providing information | Is information available in the formats people actually need - large print, easy read, translated, and recorded as provided? | Reg 9Person-centred care |
| Listening to and involving people | Complaints log complete, including the ones resolved informally. Reg 16(3) means CQC can ask for a summary and you must provide it - that is directly prosecutable. | Reg 16Receiving and acting on complaints |
| Equity in access | Has anyone been declined a service, and is the reason recorded and defensible? | Reg 10Dignity and respect |
| Equity in experiences and outcomes | Do outcomes differ across any protected characteristic? You cannot answer this if you do not record it. | Reg 10Dignity and respect |
| Planning for the future | Advance care plans, ReSPECT or DNACPR forms current, reviewed, and consistent with the person's recorded wishes. | Reg 9Person-centred care |
Well-led 8 quality statements
| Quality statement | What to check | Regulation |
|---|---|---|
| Shared direction and culture | Ask three staff what the service is trying to be good at. If you get three different answers, that is the finding. | Reg 17Good governance |
| Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders | Is the registered manager in post, registered, and present? Absences over 28 days are notifiable under Reg 14 of the 2009 regs. | Reg 17Good governance |
| Freedom to speak up | Has anyone actually raised something, and can you show what happened next? A service with no concerns raised is unmeasured, not healthy. | Reg 17Good governance |
| Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion | Recruitment records complete against Schedule 3 - identity, DBS, full employment history, references, conduct in previous care roles. | Reg 19Fit and proper persons employed |
| Governance, management and sustainability | The big one. Is there an audit schedule, is it being followed, and does each audit have findings tracked to closure with an owner and a date? | Reg 17Good governance |
| Partnerships and communities | Evidence of working with the local authority, ICB, advocacy services and families - and of acting on what they said. | Reg 17Good governance |
| Learning, improvement and innovation | Name one thing you changed in the last quarter because of what you learned, and show the paper trail. | Reg 17Good governance |
| Environmental sustainability | Note: CQC has NOT included environmental sustainability in the draft adult social care framework. Still assessed today; likely to fall away for ASC. | Reg 17Good governance |
Two of these move under the draft 2026 frameworks. Person-centred care moves from Responsive into Caring, and workforce wellbeing moves from Caring into Well-led. If you file evidence by key question, those two change folders. Our free CQC framework crosswalk maps all 34 to what replaces them, by sector.
An audit with no closed actions is evidence against you
Regulation 17 — good governance does not require you to audit. It requires "systems or processes" to assess, monitor and improve quality. An audit is how most services demonstrate that, which is why the audit itself is rarely the finding.
The finding is almost always the same thing: an audit was completed, something was noted, and nothing traceable happened next. That is a stronger piece of evidence against a service than never having audited at all, because it shows the provider looked and did not act.
So whatever you use — this tool, your own, or software — the three columns that decide whether it helps you are finding, owner and closed on. They are in the spreadsheet for that reason.
Common questions
What should a care home audit cover?
At minimum, the five CQC key questions — safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. Under each, the quality statements CQC currently assesses against. This tool lists all 34, with what typically evidences each and the fundamental standard it relates to.
How often should you audit a care home?
There is no single legally required frequency. What Regulation 17 requires is systems to assess, monitor and improve quality — which in practice means a schedule you actually follow, with findings tracked to closure. An audit completed and filed with no action recorded is worse than none, because it evidences that you looked and did nothing.
Is there an official CQC audit tool?
No. CQC publishes the assessment framework and the regulations, but not an audit tool or a checklist of evidence. Anything presented as an "official CQC checklist" is somebody's interpretation — including this one, which is why we say so.
Will this change when the new CQC frameworks land?
The structure will not. The five key questions have been constant since 2014 and are unchanged in the draft 2026 frameworks. The 34 quality statements are being replaced by sector-specific topics — two of them change key question, which is flagged in the table. Our free crosswalk tool maps all 34 to what replaces them.
Does an audit need to be done by someone independent?
Not legally, but a self-audit carried out by the person responsible for the area being audited tends to find less. Where you can, have someone else look — a manager from another site, a peer, or the provider.
Or stop running audits on spreadsheets
CompliantCare runs this schedule for you — audits raised on time, findings assigned to a named owner with a due date, and an evidence pack per key question that is current on any given day rather than assembled in inspection week.