CQC quality statements: all 34, and where each one is going
The 34 quality statements are the current basis of CQC assessment. They are being replaced by sector-specific topics, and CQC has not published a mapping. This page lists all 34 and maps every one — pick your sector and see where each piece of your evidence lands.
The CQC quality statements are 34 short "we" statements setting out what a good service looks like. They were introduced with the Single Assessment Framework in November 2023, replacing the previous key lines of enquiry, and they sit under the five key questions — safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
They are still the operative framework today. CQC's draft 2026 frameworks replace them with sector-specific topics, but implementation is expected at the end of 2026 and CQC's instruction is to keep following current published guidance until then.
All 34 CQC quality statements
Grouped by key question, as CQC publishes them. Each links to where it lands in the new framework below.
Safe 8
- Learning culture
- Safe systems, pathways and transitions
- Safeguarding
- Involving people to manage risks
- Safe environments
- Infection prevention and control
- Safe and effective staffing
- Medicines optimisation
Effective 6
- Assessing needs
- Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
- Monitoring and improving outcomes
- Supporting people to live healthier lives
- Consent to care and treatment
- How staff, teams and services work together
Caring 5
- Kindness, compassion and dignity
- Treating people as individuals
- Independence, choice and control
- Responding to people's immediate needs
- Workforce wellbeing and enablement
Responsive 7
- Person-centred care
- Care provision, integration, and continuity
- Listening to and involving people
- Providing information
- Equity in access
- Equity in experiences and outcomes
- Planning for the future
Well-led 8
- Shared direction and culture
- Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders
- Freedom to speak up
- Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
- Governance, management and sustainability
- Partnerships and communities
- Learning, improvement and innovation
- Environmental sustainability – sustainable development
Eight under safe, six under effective, five under caring, seven under responsive and eight under well-led. Not all 34 are assessed at every inspection — CQC selects a subset relevant to the service.
Safe
| Quality statement today | Becomes | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Learning culture | Safety cultureSafety cultureSafety cultureSafety cultureBroadened from learning to safety culture overall. | Renamed |
| Safe systems, pathways and transitions | Safe systems, pathways and transitionsSafe systems, pathways and transitionsSafe systems, pathways and transitionsSafe systems, pathways and transitions | Unchanged |
| Safeguarding | SafeguardingSafeguardingSafeguardingSafeguarding | Unchanged |
| Involving people to manage risks | Managing risks during care and treatmentManaging risks during care and treatmentManaging risks during care and treatmentManaging risks during care and treatmentEmphasis shifts from involving people to managing the risk. | Reframed |
| Safe environments | Safe environments and infection prevention and controlSafe environments and infection prevention and controlSafe environments and infection prevention and controlSafe environments and infection, prevention and controlMerged with infection prevention and control. | Merged |
| Infection prevention and control | Safe environments and infection prevention and controlSafe environments and infection prevention and controlSafe environments and infection prevention and controlSafe environments and infection, prevention and controlMerged with safe environments. | Merged |
| Safe and effective staffing | Safe staffingSafe staffingSafe staffingSafe staffing‘Effective’ drops from the title. | Renamed |
| Medicines optimisation | Safe medicines and treatmentsSafe delivery of treatments and medicinesSafe delivery of treatments and medicinesSafe delivery of medicines and treatmentsBroadened to cover treatments as well as medicines. | Renamed |
Effective
| Quality statement today | Becomes | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Assessing needs | Assessing needsAssessing needsAssessing needsAssessing needs | Unchanged |
| Delivering evidence-based care and treatment | Evidence-based care and equitable outcomesDelivering evidence-based care and treatmentDelivering evidence-based care and treatmentDelivering evidence-based care and treatmentIn adult social care this merges with outcomes; elsewhere it stays separate. | Merged |
| Monitoring and improving outcomes | Evidence-based care and equitable outcomesOutcomesOutcomesOutcomesAdult social care folds outcomes into evidence-based care; the other three keep a distinct Outcomes topic. | Merged |
| Supporting people to live healthier lives | Supporting people to live healthier livesSupporting people to live healthier livesSupporting people to live healthier livesSupporting people to live healthier lives | Unchanged |
| Consent to care and treatment | Consent to care and treatmentConsent to care and treatmentConsent to care and treatmentConsent to care and treatment | Unchanged |
| How staff, teams and services work together | Partnerships and communities + Care provision, integration and continuityPartnerships and communities + Care provision, integration, and continuityPartnerships and communities + Care provision, integration, and continuityPartnerships and communities + Care provision, integration, and continuityNo direct successor. Scope now sits across partnerships and care provision/integration. | Redistributed |
Caring
| Quality statement today | Becomes | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Kindness, compassion and dignity | Kindness, compassion and dignityKindness, compassion and dignityKindness, compassion and dignityKindness, compassion and dignity | Unchanged |
| Treating people as individuals | Person-centred carePerson-centred carePerson-centred carePerson-centred careBecomes Person-centred care — which moves INTO Caring from Responsive. | Renamed |
| Independence, choice and control | Independence, choice and controlIndependence, choice, and controlIndependence, choice, and controlIndependence, choice, and control | Unchanged |
| Responding to people's immediate needs | Person-centred carePerson-centred carePerson-centred carePerson-centred careFolded into Person-centred care. | Absorbed |
| Workforce wellbeing and enablement | Workforce equity and cultureWorkforce equity and cultureWorkforce equity and cultureWorkforce equity and cultureMOVES KEY QUESTION — Caring → Well-led (Workforce equity and culture). | Moves key question |
Responsive
| Quality statement today | Becomes | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Person-centred care | Person-centred carePerson-centred carePerson-centred carePerson-centred careMOVES KEY QUESTION — Responsive → Caring. | Moves key question |
| Care provision, integration, and continuity | Care provision, integration and continuityCare provision, integration, and continuityCare provision, integration, and continuityCare provision, integration, and continuity | Unchanged |
| Listening to and involving people | Listening to and responding to feedbackListening and responding to feedbackListening and responding to feedbackListening and responding to feedback‘Responding’ replaces ‘involving’. | Reframed |
| Providing information | Listening to and responding to feedbackListening and responding to feedbackListening and responding to feedbackListening and responding to feedbackNo direct successor; scope spreads across listening/responding and person-centred care. | Absorbed |
| Equity in access | Timely and equitable accessTimely and equitable accessTimely and equitable accessTimely and equitable accessTimeliness now explicit in the title. | Merged |
| Equity in experiences and outcomes | Equity in experiencesEquity in experienceEquity in experienceEquity in experience‘Outcomes’ moves to the Effective key question. | Narrowed |
| Planning for the future | Person-centred care + Assessing needsPerson-centred care + Assessing needsPerson-centred care + Assessing needsPerson-centred care + Assessing needsNo direct successor; scope spreads across person-centred care and assessing needs. | Absorbed |
Well-led
| Quality statement today | Becomes | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Shared direction and culture | Strategic directionStrategic directionStrategic directionStrategic directionNarrowed to strategic direction. | Renamed |
| Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders | Capable and compassionate leadersCapable and compassionate leadersCapable and compassionate leadersCapable and compassionate leaders‘Inclusive’ drops from the title. | Renamed |
| Freedom to speak up | Workforce equity and culture + Safety cultureWorkforce equity and culture + Safety cultureWorkforce equity and culture + Safety cultureWorkforce equity and culture + Safety cultureLoses its standalone topic; scope sits in workforce culture and safety culture. | Absorbed |
| Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion | Workforce equity and cultureWorkforce equity and cultureWorkforce equity and cultureWorkforce equity and cultureAbsorbs workforce wellbeing from the Caring key question. | Reframed |
| Governance, management and sustainability | Governance and managementGovernance + Management of risk, performance and issuesGovernance + Management of risk, performance and issuesGovernance + Management of risk, performance and issuesAdult social care keeps one combined topic; the other three split governance from management of risk, performance and issues. | Split in two |
| Partnerships and communities | Partnerships and communitiesPartnerships and communitiesPartnerships and communitiesPartnerships and communities | Unchanged |
| Learning, improvement and innovation | Improvement, innovation and learningImprovement, innovation and learningImprovement, innovation and learningImprovement, innovation and learningSame scope, words reordered. | Reordered |
| Environmental sustainability – sustainable development | Not in this frameworkStrategic directionStrategic directionStrategic directionREMOVED from adult social care — CQC: “We have not included environmental sustainability in the draft adult social care assessment framework.” In the other three it survives inside Strategic direction, alongside strategy, values, organisational sustainability and social impact. | RemovedAbsorbedAbsorbedAbsorbed |
Take your sector's crosswalk with you
The spreadsheet is a working template, not just a reference: alongside the mapping it has blank columns for where your evidence lives, who owns it and what needs to move — so you can turn it into a transition plan in an afternoon. Free, no email required.
These are built from the drafts. Tell us your sector and we'll send you the final version free the day CQC publishes the finished frameworks.
Three things worth knowing
It's consolidation, not expansion. 34 quality statements become 24 topics in adult social care and 26 elsewhere. Fewer things to evidence, not more.
Two statements change key question. Person-centred care moves from Responsive to Caring. Workforce wellbeing moves from Caring to Well-led. If you file evidence by key question, those two move folders.
The four frameworks are more alike than they sound. Caring is identical across all four. Mental health, primary care and hospitals are structurally identical to each other. Adult social care is the only genuine outlier — and it's the simplest of the four.
Auditing against the current 34? Use our free care home audit tool. For the full picture, see our guide to CQC's new assessment frameworks, or our view on why this reform makes your evidence matter more.
Common questions
Has CQC published an official mapping from quality statements to the new frameworks?
No. CQC has published the four draft sector frameworks but no crosswalk between the current 34 quality statements and the new topics. This tool is Safe Workplace's interpretation, based on comparing topic scope in CQC's own draft documents.
How many topics are in the new CQC frameworks?
Adult social care has 24 topics. Mental health, primary care and community services, and hospitals each have 26. That is down from 34 quality statements today — the reform consolidates rather than expands.
Which quality statements change key question?
Two. Person-centred care moves from Responsive into Caring. Workforce wellbeing and enablement moves from Caring into Well-led, where it is absorbed into Workforce equity and culture.
Is environmental sustainability still assessed?
Not in adult social care. CQC states it has "not included environmental sustainability in the draft adult social care assessment framework". In mental health, primary care and hospitals it survives inside the Strategic direction topic, alongside strategy, values, organisational sustainability and social impact.
Are the four new frameworks very different from each other?
Less than the phrase "sector-specific frameworks" suggests. Caring is identical across all four. Mental health, primary care and hospitals are structurally identical to each other bar minor wording. Adult social care is the only real outlier, and it is the simplest — it merges evidence-based care with outcomes, and governance with management.
Frameworks change. Your evidence shouldn't have to.
CompliantCare maps evidence to the five key questions — the layer that has survived every framework generation since 2014. When the new topics land, they map to evidence you already hold.