CQC New single assessment framework

Announced earlier this year the CQC are making significant changes to their assessment framework for health and social care providers. Here are some of the important points that you need to know about these changes making it easier for you to understand them.

Single assessment framework

Firstly, the CQC is replacing its four current assessment frameworks with one single assessment framework. This will reduce the amount of duplication that there currently is and will set one clear understanding of what ‘quality’ care is.

Key questions and quality statements

The new assessment framework has been structured as a pyramid which lays out the assessment criteria.

At the top, the 5 questions are still central to the approach and will stay the same as before. However, they will be aligned with ‘I’ statements, based on what people need and expect to gather more structured and insightful feedback.

The KLOEs have been replaced with ‘quality statements’ and will be expressed as ‘we’ statements, these are the standards to which we hold providers, local authorities and ICS to account.

To make the evidence clearer that the CQC collect they have developed six categories:

• People’s experiences
• Feedback from staff and leaders
• Observations of care
• Processes
• Outcomes of care

The last part of the pyramid is specific evidence and quality indicators, where the data and information collected will be specific to the scope of the assessment, delivery model or population group.

Ongoing assessment

Currently, the frequency of the CQC’s inspections is impacted by the previous rating, with some ongoing monitoring. With this new assessment framework, they will be carrying out ongoing assessments of quality and risk.

When will this be taking place?

‘Early adopters have already started trialing this new assessment framework with the hope of a full rollout of the framework in January 2023.

Watch the CQC YouTube video for a fuller explanation here.