Assessment framework for local authority assurance

April 2026

We will use this framework to assess how well local authorities are performing against their duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. We developed this framework through co-production with partners, agencies and people with direct experience of using care and support services.

The assessment framework uses a subset of the quality statements from the overall assessment framework. This is because local authorities are being assessed against a different set of statutory duties to registered providers.

Our assessment framework for local authorities comprises 9 quality statements mapped across 4 overall themes.

For each theme we set out:

1. the I statements and quality statements that we will assess, including rating characteristics:
   • Quality statements are the commitments that local authorities must commit to. Expressed as ‘we statements’, they show what is needed to deliver high-quality, person-centred care.
   • Rating characteristics describe some of the key features we might expect at each judgement level.
   • I statements are what people expect. They are based on Think Local Act Personal’s ‘Making It Real’ framework.
2. sections of the Care Act to which the quality statements relate
3. required evidence categories for each quality statement and sources of evidence.