30 March 2026 · 6 min read · Arviteni
CQC has published draft sector-specific assessment frameworks with key lines of enquiry replacing quality statements. Here's what care providers need to do before the June 2026 deadline.
The Care Quality Commission published its draft sector-specific assessment frameworks on 24 March 2026, marking the most significant shift in how care services will be assessed in years. If you run or manage a CQC-regulated care service, this is something you need to understand now, not when the new approach goes live.
Here's what's actually changing, what it means for your organisation, and what you can do to prepare.
Following the "Better regulation, better care" consultation, CQC has developed four separate assessment frameworks, each tailored to a specific sector:
For care providers reading this, the adult social care framework is the one that directly affects you. But the principle is the same across all four: CQC is moving away from a one-size-fits-all model towards assessments that reflect how each type of service actually operates.
The five fundamental questions remain: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, and Well-led. These aren't going anywhere. What's changing is how CQC gathers evidence and makes judgements under each question.
The current quality statements are being replaced by key lines of enquiry, which are structured questions describing exactly what inspectors will look for during assessments. Think of them as a more specific, sector-relevant version of what already exists, but designed to give both inspectors and providers a clearer picture of expectations.
For adult social care, this means the questions will reflect the realities of running a care service: workforce pressures, safeguarding, medication management, person-centred planning, and the practical challenges that registered managers deal with every day.
CQC is removing the numerical scoring system introduced under the single assessment framework. Instead, inspectors will use rating characteristics: detailed descriptions of what outstanding, good, requires improvement, and inadequate care looks like for each key question, specific to each sector.
This is a meaningful change. Rather than accumulating points that feed into a calculated rating, inspectors will make a direct judgement at the key question level based on what they observe and the evidence available.
Three things stand out.
First, the assessment process should become more predictable. With sector-specific key lines of enquiry, you'll have a clearer understanding of what inspectors are looking for. That's an improvement on the current approach, where some providers have found the quality statements too broad to be actionable.
Second, evidence becomes even more important. Without numerical scoring acting as a buffer, the quality and accessibility of your evidence will carry more weight. If an inspector asks how you manage medication errors and you can't quickly show your process, your audit trail, and your improvement actions, that gap will be harder to compensate for elsewhere.
Third, the transition period creates its own risk. Between now and full implementation, your teams need to understand both the current and incoming frameworks. Services that wait until the new approach is finalised before preparing will be playing catch-up.
CQC is actively seeking feedback on the draft frameworks. The consultation closes on 12 June 2026. Even if you don't submit feedback, reading the adult social care framework will tell you exactly where CQC is heading. Understanding the new key lines of enquiry now means you can start aligning your processes before the frameworks are finalised.
Whatever specific form the new framework takes, the five questions aren't changing. Use this window to ensure you can demonstrate compliance under each one:
If you can't pull together a clear evidence pack for any of these within an hour, that's your starting point.
With the move away from numerical scoring, the narrative around your evidence matters more. Digital audit trails that show who did what, when, and why give you a defensible record that paper processes simply can't match. If your systems don't currently capture changes, access, and actions in a structured way, now is the time to address that. We've written about why audit trails matter for care providers and the practical steps to get them in place.
Registered managers and senior care staff need to understand the shift from quality statements to key lines of enquiry. This isn't just a CQC-internal change: it will affect how inspectors ask questions, what evidence they request, and how they frame their judgements. Building awareness now means your team won't be caught off-guard when the new approach is piloted later this year.
Many care providers already have the data CQC needs to see, but it's scattered across spreadsheets, shared drives, email threads, and paper files. Bringing that information into accessible, searchable systems is one of the most practical things you can do to prepare. This applies to everything from DSPT compliance evidence to training records and incident logs.
If you're exploring how AI can help with regulatory preparation, tools like Clara AI are designed specifically for care providers who need to navigate CQC frameworks, draft policies, and prepare for assessments with UK data sovereignty built in.
This framework change sits alongside several other regulatory shifts affecting care providers in 2026, including the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill and ongoing DSPT requirements. Each of these asks providers to demonstrate stronger governance, better records, and more systematic approaches to compliance.
The common thread is evidence. Providers who can show clearly and quickly what they do, how they do it, and how they improve will be better positioned under any framework CQC introduces.
One care provider we worked with had no consistent audit trail across their core systems before we implemented comprehensive audit logging across their Microsoft 365 environment and key business systems. That kind of foundation is exactly what makes the difference when an inspector walks through the door.
CQC will collect feedback on the draft frameworks until 12 June 2026. After that, the frameworks will be refined and piloted over the summer. If the timeline holds, care providers should expect the new sector-specific approach to be in place by late 2026 or early 2027.
The window between now and implementation is your opportunity to prepare, not react.
If your care organisation needs help getting its technology, compliance evidence, and governance processes ready for the new CQC frameworks, get in touch with our team. We work exclusively with care providers and can help you build the systems and audit trails that make inspection readiness part of your everyday operations, not a last-minute scramble.