Single assessment framework

Key questions and quality statements

Our assessment framework is made up of 5 key questions and, under each key question, a set of quality statements.

Our 5 key questions are the things we ask of all health and social care services. We ask if they are:

• safe
• effective
• caring
• responsive to people's needs
• well-led

Quality statements are the commitments that providers, commissioners and system leaders should live up to. Expressed as ‘we statements’, they show what is needed to deliver high-quality, person-centred care.

The quality statements show how services and providers need to work together to plan and deliver high quality care. They directly relate to the regulations listed. Regulations we would also consider in our judgements are shown in brackets.

When they refer to 'people' we mean people who use services, their families, friends and unpaid carers. This includes:

• people with protected equality characteristics
• those most likely to have a poorer experience of care or experience inequalities.