17 August 2026 · CareTime
The CQC's consultation on the new adult social care assessment framework closed at 5pm on 12 June 2026, having received more than 1,700 responses. As of August 2026 the final framework has not yet been published: the CQC is working through the responses and piloting the approach over the summer, with the final text still expected during 2026 and implementation toward the end of the year. For care home managers, that leaves a gap of several months between the close of consultation and the point at which inspectors begin using the new framework in practice. That window is worth using deliberately. Evidence built now, under real conditions, will be considerably more convincing than evidence assembled in a hurry once the framework goes live.
The consultation is closed and the final framework is not yet out. Nothing in the draft has been withdrawn, and the broad shape is settled enough to prepare against: the five key questions (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-Led) are retained, the 34 Quality Statements are replaced by 24 adult-social-care-specific Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs), Rating Characteristics return, and numerical scoring is removed in favour of judgement at key-question level. Waiting for the final wording before doing anything is the one option that wastes the gap — the underlying expectation is already clear.
The new adult social care framework replaces the Single Assessment Framework (SAF) introduced in 2024, which the CQC has acknowledged had significant problems. The core structure returns to something care home managers will recognise: the five key questions remain, but the Quality Statements are replaced by 24 KLOEs, and Rating Characteristics return in place of numerical scores.
Two changes in the draft framework are particularly relevant to communications evidence.
Well-Led expands to five KLOEs. Governance, oversight, sustainability, and leadership effectiveness each have their own line of enquiry. A registered manager who can point to a dated, routine record of how telephone communications were monitored and acted on — rather than a retrospective claim — is providing a different class of evidence.
Responsive includes a named KLOE on listening to and responding to feedback. This is new. Previous frameworks referenced feedback in passing; the draft explicitly names it as a line of enquiry. Phone calls are often the primary channel through which families give feedback. A log of when calls came in, whether they were answered, and what happened next is direct evidence for this KLOE.
CQC inspectors do not work only with what a provider tells them on the day of inspection. They consider trends: call records, incident logs, staffing patterns, complaint histories. A home that starts logging call activity now and is inspected early in 2027 has months of continuous, dated evidence to point to. A home that starts the week the framework goes live has a fortnight.
The CQC's own guidance consistently emphasises dated, auditable records with named accountability. Evidence that shows management oversight was happening routinely — rather than evidence assembled in response to an inspection notification — is treated as qualitatively different.
Establish a routine communications oversight process. If you do not have a systematic way of reviewing which calls your care home received each day, who called, and whether any required follow-up, that is the most useful gap to close. An AI call monitoring service provides this automatically; a manual log can work for smaller homes. The critical factor is regularity and dating — a single log entry covering last Tuesday is less useful than a daily record going back months.
Create a searchable record of missed and returned calls. The Responsive KLOE on listening and responding to feedback will want to see what you do when someone calls and does not get through. A documented process for returning calls, and evidence that it is followed, is worth more than a policy that says it should happen.
Don't wait for the final framework wording. The broad shape of the new framework is clear from the consultation draft, and the underlying expectation — dated evidence, governance oversight, demonstrated responsiveness — is continuous with what CQC has been moving toward for several years. Providers who are building this evidence base now will not need to retrofit it when the framework goes live.
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 24 March 2026 | CQC publishes draft adult social care framework |
| 12 June 2026 | CQC consultation closes (1,700+ responses) |
| Summer 2026 | Analysis and piloting; final framework still awaited |
| Late 2026 | Final framework and implementation expected |
Once implementation begins, the new KLOEs are the basis on which your service will be assessed. The Rating Characteristics will tell you what evidence is expected at each rating level; it is worth reviewing those against what you can already demonstrate once they are published.
Has the CQC published the final adult social care framework yet? Not as of August 2026. The consultation closed on 12 June 2026 with more than 1,700 responses. The CQC is analysing responses and piloting over the summer, with the final framework still expected during 2026 and implementation toward the end of the year.
What is replacing the 34 Quality Statements? The draft framework replaces the 34 Quality Statements with 24 adult-social-care-specific Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs). The five key questions — Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-Led — are retained, Rating Characteristics return, and numerical scoring is removed.
What should a care home do while it waits for the final framework? Use the gap to build dated, routine evidence — particularly of governance oversight (Well-Led) and of how the home listens and responds to feedback (Responsive). Evidence accumulated month by month is more convincing than evidence assembled after an inspection is announced.
How do phone call records help with the new framework? A dated log of calls received, answered, missed, and returned is direct evidence for the Responsive KLOE on feedback and for Well-Led oversight. It shows, rather than asserts, that the home monitors its communications and acts on them.
CareTime's Silent Guard provides a daily Morning Brief and full call log that gives registered managers ongoing evidence of communications oversight — the kind of dated, searchable record that supports Well-Led and Responsive KLOEs. If you're building your evidence base ahead of the new framework, what does your care home currently have to show for the calls it received last month? If you'd like to see the Morning Brief running, start with a 30-day pilot.
CareTime's Silent Guard is available now for a 30-day pilot. £49, 1-page pilot letter — exit by reply-email.
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