How we assess local authorities

Our assessment framework for local authorities is based on a set of 9 quality statements arranged under 4 themes.

These quality statements are supported by rating characteristics. The rating characteristics describe what care and support, and governance and leadership might look like for each quality statement across each judgement level in the assessment framework.

Our assessment activity, judgements and reporting emphasise issues that affect unpaid carers. This is based on what we learned from our baseline assessments and our engagement with a range of stakeholders.

Period of assessment

Our assessments start when we send an information return request to local authorities with adult social care functions. They end when we publish our assessment reports.

During the assessment, we intend to look at evidence that relates to the 12 months preceding the start of the assessment (when we send the information return). This is the period to which the assessment relates.

However, we may look at evidence outside of the 12-month period. Examples of when we will do this include:

• when we need to look at data that is published less often than every year
• when looking at organisational strategies and policies.

In exceptional circumstances, it may be appropriate for us to look at information of concern that is several years old. We will only consider this if it is significant and relevant to our current assessment. Our assessment teams will consider each individual case to make these decisions.

If we identify serious risks to people during an assessment (‘assessment A’) we will follow these up in a further assessment (‘assessment B’). The period that the follow-up assessment (B) relates to is:

• from the date of publication of the report for assessment A
• to the date when we publish the report for the follow-up assessment (B).

We will report serious failings to the Department of Health and Social Care. See notifying the Secretary of State.

Types of assessments, frequency and their scope

To help us determine the type and scope of an assessment we use what we know about a local authority (including its current rating) alongside information from our monitoring activity.

We will carry out either a:

• comprehensive assessment
• focused assessment.

In exceptional circumstances, we may need to carry out more than one type of assessment (comprehensive or focused) due to issues of concern. For example, we may do this if:

• we believe people are or may be at risk of harm
• we have previously carried out an assessment where we have identified serious risks to people and need assurance that improvements have been made.

We look at each issue of concern on a case-by-case basis when we decide whether to carry out any additional assessments.

Comprehensive assessment

Comprehensive assessments will consider all the themes and quality statements within the assessment framework to determine how well local authorities are performing against their regulated care functions under Part 1 of the Care Act (2014). This includes the Secretary of State’s priorities and areas of focus.

These assessments can change the overall rating of a local authority and usually take place on a fixed schedule. They always include a site visit and result in a published report that covers all quality statements.

The schedule of comprehensive assessments is based on the information we hold about a local authority, alongside its most recent assessment rating.

The time taken to see tangible improvement will vary across local authorities. The circumstances that lead to the rating, and the extent of the issues identified, may take longer to resolve in some local authorities than others. Any local authority who has been referred to the Secretary of State for failing to deliver their regulated care functions under Part 1 of the Care Act (2014), may also be working with an improvement team. We will take this work into account to determine the frequency for assessment.

The usual maximum timeframes between comprehensive (rating) assessments are:

• Outstanding: 4 years from publication of last report
• Good: 4 years from publication of last report
• Requires improvement: 3 years from publication of last report
• Inadequate: 3 years from publication of last report (so the impact can be demonstrated)

There may be circumstances which require us to extend or reduce the interval between comprehensive assessments. Factors that may influence adjustments and/or prioritisation of the maximum intervals between assessments include:

• information received about the local authority, including from stakeholders
• the annual process of local authority self-evaluation
• Local authority assurance meeting
• Local government reorganisation.

We aim to give 6 to 8 weeks' notice before we carry out the site visit for a comprehensive assessment. This includes providing the name of a CQC assessment planner as the key contact for any queries, as well as the name of the assessment manager who will be leading that assessment.

The assessment consists of off-site virtual activity and on-site activity. We usually carry out the on-site activity on weekdays from Monday to Friday. During the site visit you will be able to keep in touch with the lead assessment manager to find out how the assessment is going. When we have finished the site visit, there will be a feedback session to discuss the main points. There may also be other contact during the reporting process.

We will consider the impacts and risks from local government reorganisation for individual local authorities, and we may adjust our schedule of assessments in response. This could include adjusting the maximum timeframe for assessment or prioritising assessments. In instances where we extend the interval between assessments, we will consider if other means of assurance is required. For example, we may undertake an additional CQC local authority assurance meeting or a focused assessment. We will keep this approach under review as the impact of local government reorganisation becomes clearer for each local authority.

Focused assessment

Focused assessments result in a published report. We use them to:

• follow up known risks and provide assurance about improvements
• respond to potential changes in the quality of care and support identified through our monitoring activity
• provide deeper insight on key priority areas in a local authority
• provide insight in relation to the Secretary of State’s priorities for local authority assessments, which are aligned with the regulated care functions in Part 1 of the Care Act (2014) that we assess. We therefore expect focused assessments will enable us to understand how local authorities deliver these priorities.

We may also use focused assessments to provide assurance about performance in the period before or within 6 months after vesting day for local authorities affected by local government reorganisation.

Focused assessments look at specific themes and/or quality statements to explore aspects of how care and support are delivered. The maximum number of quality statements we assess is 3, but we can also just assess one, or a specific element of a quality statement. Where we have only looked at part of a quality statement, we will not provide an updated score.

Although the score for a quality statement may change, your overall rating will not change. This is because other quality statement scores are historical and cannot be used to provide a new rating for the local authority. Only a comprehensive assessment of all quality statements can change the overall rating for a local authority.

We will usually carry out a focused assessment between comprehensive assessments, but not generally in the same year.

The focused assessment period starts when we notify the local authority. When we notify you, we will tell you what the focus of the assessment will be. We may change that focus or choose to carry out a comprehensive assessment if additional risks emerge during the focused assessment.

To carry out the focused assessment, we may request information that will only focus on the specific quality statement(s) that we are due to assess. We will review what information and evidence we already hold to help decide what we need to request. This may be through an information return or another way.

The way we gather evidence about people’s experiences, feedback from partners, and feedback from staff and leaders may vary depending on the focus of the assessment.  We will let you know whether we will carry out a site visit as part of the focused assessment when you receive notification of the assessment.

There is a short period between the assessment and when we publish the report on our website. This gives you an opportunity to check the factual accuracy of the draft report, which is the same process as for comprehensive assessments.

How we determine the scope of a focused assessment

We will send you a notification of a focused assessment through a standard focused assessment letter. It will notify you of the scope of the assessment, the information we ask for and whether we need to carry out a site visit. The notice period is 4 to 6 weeks before any site visit, depending on the information we need beforehand and the scope of the assessment.

To help us determine the scope of a focused assessment, we use what we know about a local authority, alongside information from our monitoring activity. This includes the:

• current rating of the local authority and when it was last assessed
• impact of local government reorganisation
• information received about the local authority, including from stakeholders
• information from the local authority, including from an assurance meeting

Findings from focused assessment activity will also inform the schedule for a comprehensive assessment.

What we include in a focused assessment report

When we publish a focused assessment report on our website, we will make it clear that the other quality statement scores are historical and cannot be used to provide a new rating for the local authority.

The assessment report will only focus on the quality statement(s) we assessed and will include:

• the reason for the focused assessment and the quality statement(s) that we assessed
• a summary of the local authority’s key features, including the rating from the last comprehensive assessment and publication date
• the updated score for the whole quality statement(s) that we assessed, and our most up-to-date findings for these historical scores from previous assessments for other quality statements
• (where we have assessed part of a quality statement) the quality statement score from the most recent previous assessment and our up-to-date findings for the part of the quality statement we have assessed
• findings about people’s experiences and outcomes from their care, including those of unpaid carers, and how we used this information in the assessment
• a description of the areas that need development and areas of strength, and the direction of travel for any improvements in the local authority
• a summary of the local authority's performance against the relevant quality statement that maps to the Secretary of State’s priorities.

Evidence categories

The evidence we consider for each quality statement will vary according to what we are assessing. The specific evidence sources we look at to assess quality and performance in that area will change in line with the most up-to-date best practice standards, guidance and information, and data developments.

We use the following evidence categories:

• People’s experience as set out in our experience principles and framework. This category covers all types of evidence where the source is from people who have experience relating to a specific health or care service, or a pathway across services. It also includes evidence from families, carers and advocates for people who use services. Examples include interviews with people, information from our Give feedback on care service, results of surveys and feedback from representative groups.
• Feedback from staff and leaders including from direct interviews, compliments and concerns raised with us, surveys, and evidence from self-assessments.
• Feedback from partners including from commissioners, health and care providers, professional regulators, accreditation bodies and multi-agency bodies. This will include partners involved in the wider determinants of health and wellbeing, such as housing, licensing, and environmental services.
• Processes are the series of steps or activities that are carried out to deliver care and support that is safe and meets people’s needs. We will focus on the effectiveness of the processes rather than simply their existence. This category includes metrics such as waiting times, audits, policies and strategies.

The assessment framework for local authority assurance includes examples of the types of evidence we need to look at.

How we gather evidence

We will use the most appropriate options to gather evidence for a quality statement through both on-site and off-site methods.

For each local authority, we will gather evidence in this order:

1. What we have, for example evidence from national data collections, insight from our regulation of health and care providers.
2. What we need to request, for example specific policies and strategies, internal and external survey results, feedback from staff, self-assessment of performance.
3. What we need to actively collect, for example from understanding people's experiences, sampling people's experiences, focus groups, conversations with staff and leaders, and people whose voices are independent from the local authority. We will only actively collect information that we can’t get through other means.

Information return

Each assessment starts when we send a request for information to local authorities with adult social care functions. This is called an information return.

The information return requests the documentary evidence and key information that we need to support us to carry out an assessment. This enables the assessment team to:

• gain valuable insight into how the local authority is delivering its adult social care functions
• identify areas for further exploration
• identify the additional evidence that we need to actively collect to complete the assessment
• target on-site activity and minimise time demands on both the assessment team and the local authority.

When we send the information return request, we will tell you:

• what types of information we need – and what you do not need to send us
• the deadline date when we need to have received it by
• the contact details for a key person at CQC in case you have any queries.

You do not need to send us any information until we request it.

Factual financial information

The Department of Health and Social Care has requested that we include financial information in assessment reports. However, we do not consider this in our assessment – it is presented for information purposes only.

Note: Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individual people. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost.

The local authority financial information will include the following:

• The local authority's total spend was £XX in 2024/25, in comparison to a total spend of £XX in 2023/24. In 2024/25, XX% of the total spend was spent on adult social care. Spend figures are net current expenditure (total service expenditure) sourced from outturn data and are not adjusted for inflation.
• The local authority's total spend on adult social care was £XX in 2024/2025, compared to a total spend on adult social care of £XX in 2023/2024. The local authority spent £XX (adult social care spend) per 100,000 total adults in 2024/2025. Spend figures are net current expenditure sourced from adult social care finance returns (ASC-FR) and are not adjusted for inflation.
• The local authority has [not] raised the full adult social care precept for 2024/25, with a value of XX%. Please note that the amount raised through adult social care precept varies from local authority to local authority. Adult social care precept data sourced from council tax levels set by local authorities in England.
• Approximately XX people were accessing long-term adult social care support, and approximately XX people were accessing short-term adult social care support in 2024/25. Local authorities spend money on a range of adult social care services, including supporting individuals. No two care packages are the same and vary significantly in their intensity, duration, and cost. Data on people accessing support sourced from the Adult Social Care Activity Report.

Gathering people’s experiences and feedback

We use a range of approaches to gather evidence about people’s experiences before we carry out an on-site visit. We corroborate the evidence to ensure our judgements are robust.

To help us collect this, we work with groups and organisations that represent people who use social care and support, and unpaid carers. For example, voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise groups. Along with our CQC Experts by Experience, they can help us to contact people, families and representative groups, and engage with communities whose voices are seldom heard.

We can also use feedback from our Give feedback on care service and when people contact us through our National Customer Service Centre.

Speaking with unpaid carers and voluntary and community groups

We gather feedback by speaking directly with unpaid carers themselves and with voluntary and community groups about the experiences of the people they support. The way we do this depends on the arrangements for providing carers support in each local authority. The organisations that are providing support will select the carers to speak with us.

We aim to speak with carers who have had a carers assessment as well as those who haven’t.

The number of carers we speak with depends on how many people give their consent to speak to us.

During our on-site activity, we will usually speak with people who are involved in co-production work with the local authority. The types of people and meetings will vary according to the co-production structures and projects within each local authority.

We will use the expertise of our CQC Experts by Experience, executive reviewers and specialist advisors to support our assessment activity. They support us to understand people’s experiences, which we can gather both on and off site.

The process of gathering evidence about people’s experiences will be a continuous process with additional activity planned for specific assessments.

Understanding people’s experiences

Understanding people’s experiences is the name for the approach we use to gather evidence across all areas of the assessment framework by speaking to people and reviewing their care records. This happens before the assessment site visit and it is a key part of comprehensive assessments, and may be used in focused assessments

When understanding people's experiences, we follow the pathway of a small number of people to gather evidence. A pathway is a person’s experience from when they first contact the local authority through to the care and support they are provided. It covers:

• the assessment of their needs and any unpaid carers (if applicable)
• care planning
• moving through services (if applicable)
• the impact of the care
• experiences and outcomes for the person
• a review of their needs.

To understand people’s experiences, we review a person’s care records and talk with them. Sometimes we will also talk to their family, friends, family carers or advocate. We may also talk with staff at the local authority and other partners and agencies involved with the person’s care and support journey.

We will send you:

• guidance about understanding people's experiences that includes consent and data protection requirements
• information about understanding people’s experiences to give to people whose records we are looking at.

How we understand people’s experiences

When we send you a notification of assessment, we will also ask for an anonymised list of 50 people. If this is not possible for you, we may adapt our approach on a case-by-case basis. We will provide you with a template to tell us about the primary needs of those people and some demographic information. There does not need to be an equal spread across the categories, but enough variation to allow us to explore different experiences.

The themes and primary needs for our assessments are:

• older people
• young people who have transitioned to adult services
• people who have recently come out of hospital and are receiving care
• autistic people and people with a learning disability
• people who have mental health needs, misuse substances or have experienced homelessness
• people with physical disabilities or long-term conditions.

From the list, we will select 15 people to speak with. We will aim to select a variety of different experiences, such as types of care provided, or different personal backgrounds.  When we have selected the 15 people to speak with, we will ask you to check with those people to confirm they are willing to talk to us. You will then be asked to send us specific information about each person's care using a secure online portal.

When we use understanding people’s experiences in focused local authority assessments, the approach will be flexible, depending on the context of the assessment and the focus.

Information we need

We will only ask for information that is essential to allow us to carry out our assessments. This will include details of:

• the person’s care
• their assessments and reviews
• the professionals involved
• assessments of unpaid carers supporting the person.

This information helps us to consider details held in people’s records and verify people’s feedback about their experiences. It is not intended to be used as a case file audit.

Sampling people’s experiences

To gather key evidence for an assessment, we look at a sample of the experiences of a number of people about their contact with a local authority along their journey or pathway through the adult social care system.

This approach includes what people experienced at different stages, including care planning, moving through services (if applicable), and reviewing their care. It involves looking at care records and talking to staff and managers who were involved.

The process takes place during the site visit and contributes to evidence for all areas of our assessment. It allows us to gain an in-depth understanding of people’s experiences of:

• how local authority staff make decisions about their care and support
• how these decisions are communicated and acted on
• the impact this has on their lives
• how processes are followed in practice.

The approach also helps us understand more about the oversight of processes and strengthen how we gather evidence while on site by following up areas of interest, including good practice and risk.

Areas of focus

For a comprehensive assessment we will always focus activity in 2 main areas:

• the ‘front door’ (point of entry) to the adult social care system at the local authority
• safeguarding.

After we have gathered this information, we will look at a minimum of 2 other areas to understand other pathways and processes. We will decide what to look at based on our areas of interest and will take a flexible approach with each assessment.

When we carry out a focused or thematic assessment, we may look at other areas of activity depending on the focus of the assessment. A focused assessment will look at an agreed specific number of quality statements such as safeguarding or governance, management and sustainability. A thematic assessment will look more at themes. For example, prevention, direct payments or other relevant areas.

Front door

For the front door activity, we look at the local authority’s processes and how it makes decisions about:

• eligibility thresholds and how they are applied
• people whose needs are not eligible for support, and what advice they receive
• people who have received advice or are offered preventative or reablement services, whether or not they have an eligible need
• people who have a Care Act assessment.

Safeguarding

We will look at how these 6 principles are evident in practice:

• empowerment
• prevention
• proportionality
• protection
• partnership
• accountability

We will also look at the triage and decision making for safeguarding concerns – regardless of whether they meet the threshold for a section 42 enquiry. We recognise for some local authorities, this may start at the ‘front door’.

How we sample people’s experiences

Interviews with your staff

At the timetable planning meeting, we will ask you to choose some members of staff so that our inspectors can interview in private. The interviews will not be a case file audit and the staff you nominate need to be familiar with their current workload.

We will want to speak with staff from the front door team and the safeguarding team as well as from 2 other areas, which we will decide according to each assessment. We will also ask you to choose some reserve staff in case of unexpected absences.

During the early part of the site visit, our inspectors will hold a confidential interview with 2 members of staff from each of these teams who are not managers. This will be at an agreed time, and last no longer than 1 hour 30 minutes.

In the interview, our inspectors will ask questions to understand practice, processes and outcomes, and ask to see areas of the records for people they have selected. The interviews may also cover areas such as:

• risk
• application of strength-based practice
• application of Making Safeguarding Personal
• feedback and access to advice and information.

We will also ask to speak with 1 or 2 managers from both the front door team and the safeguarding team. We may also interview managers from other teams for the topic areas selected, which we’ll determine for that specific assessment. If we hold these interviews, they will be held towards the end of the site visit, but we will be flexible when scheduling. 

During these interviews, inspectors will look at a random selection of cases for different people. These may be linked to cases we have looked at during the earlier interviews with staff, to help us understand governance and oversight.

When sampling people’s experiences while on site, through the conversations and reviewing records, inspectors will be proportionate and flexible. They will always look at records with a member of your staff present. The inspectors will ask them to access the records so they can view the relevant sections they request. This is best projected onto a big screen, if this will not compromise privacy.

As well as the interviews, we may hold staff group meetings for topic areas. Topic areas, for example, could include unpaid carers, direct payments or transitions.

We may ask to hold an additional interview when sampling people’s experiences during the site visit if it helps to corroborate evidence. If this happens, staff will be chosen at short notice. These may or may not replace staff group meetings.

There will be a ‘keeping in touch’ meeting during the assessment. If the assessment team or the local authority has any concerns, they can be raised in this meeting.

Access to records

Under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, we have powers to access medical and care records held by local authorities or registered persons of a health or care provider where we consider it necessary to carry out our regulatory functions. Local authority assessment is a regulatory function of CQC.

These powers are always balanced against our responsibilities under the Data Protection Act 1998, the Human Rights Act 1998 and the common local authority duty of confidentiality. There are also clear restrictions on the disclosure of confidential personal information under the 2008 Act. It is also vital that we respect and protect people’s privacy and dignity and maintain the confidentiality of their records to strengthen their trust in CQC.

Our teams will only use powers to look at people’s medical and care records where there is a necessary reason to do this, and where the intrusion on the privacy of the person receiving care and support is justified and proportionate. We will always refer to and apply the 'necessity test' set out in our Code of Practice on Confidential Personal Information. It is unlikely we would ever need to look at medical records.

Code of practice on confidential personal information

People have a right of access to their own personal data if it has been obtained or recorded by CQC. This would be a subject access request (SAR) under Article 15 of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations).

Our privacy statement includes a section on data subject rights and explains how to make a SAR to CQC. 

High Level Feedback (HLF) and Keeping in Touch (KiT) meetings

Keeping in Touch (KiT) meetings

KiT meetings are held daily during the on-site part of your comprehensive or focused assessment. They usually take place at the end of each full day and last for up to 30 minutes.

Their purpose is:

• to clarify our understanding of evidence gathered
• to raise potential or emerging themes and risks based on the evidence we have gathered throughout the assessment. For example: “unpaid carers have told us they have to ask for a review but we’re hearing that isn’t the process, we would like to check our understanding of this further...”
• for the local authority to feed back any issues to us which can either be resolved quickly or taken back to the wider team and applied as learning for future assessments.

Serious risks that are identified at any point during the assessment process will be raised immediately and we will not wait to raise them at a KiT meeting.

KiT meetings are led by our assessment manager and attended by our lead inspector, our Deputy Director of Local Authority Assessments (where they are present on-site), and the local authority’s Director of Adult Social Services (DASS). The DASS may wish to invite 1 or 2 additional members of the local authority’s senior leadership team.

The meetings are not intended to be an interview, and you do not need to provide any new documents or evidence to prepare for them.

A KiT meeting may not be required on the last day of the site visit. Where this is the case, the assessment manager will arrange to meet with the DASS for a final time to thank them and their teams and confirm that the site visit is complete.

The assessment team will be in touch with you directly after the site visit to close off any logistical arrangements such as arranging the High-Level Feedback (HLF) meeting or to request additional evidence.

If the team identify a significant concern or issue not previously raised on-site or at the KiT meeting, the assessment manager may arrange a call to discuss this.

High-Level Feedback (HLF) meetings

HLF meetings take place between approximately 2 and 4 weeks after the on-site part of the comprehensive or focused assessment. 

The purpose of the HLF meeting is for CQC to provide a high-level summary of our assessment findings in accordance with our published assessment framework. For example, “unpaid carers told us AAA, and on site we heard BBB about the local authority’s approach to supporting unpaid carers. This indicated CCC/shortfalls regarding support for unpaid carers.”

At the time of the HLF meeting, the drafting and quality assurance of the report will be in progress. This means that the meeting will not provide you with an indication of scores or an overall rating.

The HLF meeting includes representatives from our assessment team and the DASS. The DASS may wish to invite 1 or 2 additional members of the local authority’s operational senior leadership team.

Meetings are held virtually for 1 hour and the date can be agreed with you prior to, during or after the on-site part of the assessment. We will provide a brief written summary of the feedback following the meeting.

After the HLF meeting, our assessment manager will keep you updated about any further information requests and timeframes, including quality assurance processes, for when you can expect to receive the draft assessment report.

At this point, we will arrange a call with you to provide a brief explanation of the assessment scores in the draft report and discuss the next steps in the process. We will then send you a copy of the draft report together with a scoring grid, a factual accuracy form and a letter explaining the factual accuracy process. 

Our local authority assessment teams

Each member of our assessment teams will carry out a different aspect of the overall assessment activity. This starts when we receive the information return and ends with the on-site activity. This approach helps us to bring together all the evidence and information to form a comprehensive picture of quality. For example, members of the assessment team may:

• analyse information received in the information return to inform the on-site activity
• speak with people who use services and conduct understanding people's experiences activity
• carry out interviews during the site visit.

We aim to avoid requesting information during the on-site activity that has already been sent to us in the information return. This may happen occasionally, but if it does happen, we will not ask for it again.

Our teams have a breadth of experience in health, social care and regulation. Teams include:

• social workers
• nurses
• occupational therapists
• commissioners
• experienced regulators
• people who have worked in advocacy services and in the voluntary and community sector
• people who have delivered care and run services.

Our teams work alongside executive reviewers and specialist advisors who will be substantively or recently employed as senior leaders, such as directors of adult social services within a local authority or other relevant organisation.

This will help ensure our judgements are informed by up-to-date professional knowledge and experience.