27 April 2026 · CareTime
The CQC's draft adult social care framework, published in March 2026 with consultation open until 12 June, contains 24 Key Lines of Enquiry replacing the Quality Statements used under the Single Assessment Framework. Among them is a named KLOE under the Responsive category: listening to and responding to feedback. This is the first time the CQC has separated feedback handling out as its own line of enquiry, and it tells care home managers something specific about what the regulator wants to see in 2026 and beyond. Inspectors will expect a structured, evidenced answer to one question: what feedback did you receive, how did you handle it, and what did it lead to.
The draft framework keeps the five quality categories — Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-Led — and distributes 24 KLOEs across them: Safe 6, Effective 6, Caring 3, Responsive 4, and Well-Led 5. Numerical scoring is being removed. Rating Characteristics return, giving providers descriptors of what each rating level looks like in practice.
Within Responsive, the four KLOEs cover how the service meets needs, adapts to changing needs, supports people's choices, and listens and responds to feedback. The framework is in consultation until 5pm on 12 June 2026; pilots are expected over the summer; final framework around summer 2026; implementation toward the end of 2026. The text may change before it is final, but the direction of travel is set.
Feedback was already in the Single Assessment Framework, embedded inside Quality Statements that bundled it with broader concepts of inclusion, partnership and responsiveness. The CQC's review found that providers struggled to evidence feedback handling specifically, and inspectors found the bundled approach hard to assess consistently.
A standalone KLOE forces a sharper question. The provider does not have to demonstrate inclusion in the abstract. They have to show, for the period under review, what feedback came in, how it was logged, who saw it, what was done about it, and how the result was communicated back. That is a closed loop, and the new KLOE asks providers to demonstrate the closed loop is running.
Feedback is wider than complaints. The KLOE is expected to cover feedback from residents, their families, staff, healthcare partners, local authority commissioners, and other professionals involved in care. It includes:
Inspectors will be looking for a credible record across these channels, not just the formal complaints log. A care home that handles a hundred informal phone enquiries a month but only logs the dozen that escalate to formal complaints is not telling the full story.
The CQC has not yet published guidance on the new KLOEs, so any specifics will be interpreted from the draft text and from how inspectors apply existing standards. With that caveat, four practical evidence types are likely to feature:
A feedback log that captures the channel and the outcome. Date received, who from, what was said, who handled it, what action was taken, when the person was told the outcome. A spreadsheet meets this bar if it is kept up to date. Many digital care planning systems include feedback modules that do the same.
Call records for inbound enquiries and concerns. Phone calls are still the dominant channel for family contact in the care sector. A timestamped log of inbound calls, with categorisation of what each call was about, is direct evidence of feedback received. A record of which calls were answered and which were missed — and how missed ones were followed up — is stronger.
Evidence the registered manager reviewed the feedback. A log on its own is data. A log reviewed regularly with the actions and outcomes signed off is governance. The Well-Led KLOEs already place weight on demonstrable oversight; the new Responsive KLOE will compound that.
Evidence the loop closed. Inspectors are expected to ask whether the person who gave feedback was told what happened. A documented response — by phone, email, letter, or in a family meeting — closes the loop. Without it, the home can show feedback was received but not that it was responded to.
A large share of feedback in a care home arrives by phone. Family members ringing about a parent's appetite, a missing item of clothing, a query about medication, or a worry about a recent visit — these are feedback events even when they are not labelled as complaints.
In most homes, these calls are handled informally by whoever picks up. Notes might be made in the resident's care plan, in a handover book, or nowhere at all. There is rarely a single record that allows a manager to look at a month's worth of family contact and say what came in, what was done, and what the patterns were.
A timestamped inbound call log gives a manager that view. CareTime's Silent Guard records every call received, categorises calls as genuine, nuisance or unknown, and produces a daily Morning Brief email that summarises the previous day's activity. For the Listening and Responding KLOE, three things matter:
Silent Guard does not replace a complaints log or a feedback policy. It produces a factual record of inbound contact that sits underneath those processes and gives them a stronger evidence base.
The framework text is not yet final, but the direction is. Providers should expect to be asked, from late 2026, to show a structured account of feedback received and acted on. Three actions are sensible now.
Audit the channels through which feedback currently arrives at the home — phone, email, family meetings, complaints, professional partners — and ask whether each channel produces a record that survives more than a week.
Review the oversight routine. If the registered manager already reviews communications, complaints and feedback weekly or monthly, document that routine. If there is no routine, build one that is short enough to sustain.
Treat the consultation as a chance to inform CQC's thinking. The deadline is 12 June 2026 and provider responses are explicitly invited.
Is the new KLOE final? No. The draft framework is in consultation until 12 June 2026. The final text and KLOE wording may change. The five categories and the move to KLOEs is structural and unlikely to reverse.
When does the new framework go live? The CQC expects to publish the final framework around summer 2026 with implementation toward the end of 2026.
Does the KLOE replace our complaints policy? No. A complaints policy remains required and the new KLOE is broader than complaints. Feedback under the KLOE includes informal contact and positive feedback, not only complaints.
Will inspectors accept digital records as feedback evidence? The CQC has been clear that records are assessed on accuracy and completeness, not on the method used to produce them. Digital records — including timestamped call logs and email summaries — are acceptable provided they are accurate and reviewed by responsible staff.
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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