Care Shield Compliance Press Desk

Read the draft CQC framework before it becomes final

Draft version 9 of the adult social care framework is public, and it is the clearest signal yet of what CQC will ask you to evidence.

By the Care Shield Compliance Press Desk··3 min read·England
A thick printed document on a wooden table, fanned open and covered in coloured sticky tabs, with reading glasses and a pen.
Illustration generated for Care Shield Compliance

CQC published draft versions of its four new assessment frameworks on 19 March 2026, with feedback open to 12 June 2026. The adult social care draft is version 9, and it is the document that tells you what your next assessment will be built around. If you have not read it, you are preparing for a framework that is being retired.

What was published

Four drafts went out together, covering adult social care, mental health, primary care and community services, and secondary and specialist services. The consultation page sits on the CQC website, and the adult social care draft itself is published as a table in PDF form.pdf).

The version number is worth pausing on. A draft at version 9 has been through a lot of internal iteration before it reached the sector. That usually means the shape is settled even where the wording is not.

Read it as a working document, not a consultation

The feedback window closed on 12 June 2026. What remains useful is the draft itself as a planning document. It is the most detailed public statement of how CQC intends to describe good adult social care under the new arrangements, and it is the basis on which the final version will be built.

Read it with three questions in mind.

Where has the language moved? Changes in wording between the old quality statements and the new structure tell you where emphasis has shifted, and emphasis is what inspectors follow.

What can you not currently evidence? Go line by line and mark the items where your honest answer is that you would have to go and find something. That list is your work plan.

What have you been evidencing that no longer appears? Some of the effort your team puts in every month exists only because the previous framework asked for it. If it has gone, stop.

What this means for you

  • Download the draft and circulate it to your quality lead and your registered managers. One person reading it is not enough; the people who assemble evidence need to see the source.
  • Run a gap exercise against the draft, not against your existing evidence library. Starting from what you already hold guarantees you find only what you already have.
  • Do not rebuild your entire evidence structure yet. It is a draft, the wording will move, and rebuilding twice costs more than waiting once.
  • Diary a check for the final publication. CQC's improvement plan has final frameworks and guidance following the analysis of feedback.
  • Keep a dated copy of the draft you worked from. When the final lands, a side-by-side comparison is far quicker than rereading from scratch.

The realistic position

Providers being assessed between now and implementation are in an awkward middle. The old framework still governs your assessment, the new one governs your preparation. The sensible resolution is to keep meeting the current expectations while building the evidence habits the draft points towards, because the underlying subject matter — safety, capacity, staffing, leadership, how people experience the service — does not change when the framework does.

Where this came from

CQC's consultation page on the draft sector-specific assessment frameworks and the draft adult social care framework table published 19 March 2026.

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Sources

  1. Give your views: draft sector-specific assessment frameworks — Care Quality Commission
  2. DRAFT Adult Social Care assessment framework for feedback — Care Quality Commission

Questions people ask about this

Can we still give feedback on the draft framework?

The feedback window ran from 19 March 2026 to 12 June 2026, so it has closed. The draft remains publicly available and is still the best guide to what the final adult social care framework will ask of you. Use it for planning rather than waiting for the final text.

Should we rewrite our evidence library against the draft?

Not yet. It is a draft at version 9 and the wording will move before publication. Run a gap analysis to see what you would struggle to evidence, fix the genuine gaps, and hold structural rebuilds until CQC publishes the final framework and accompanying guidance.

Which framework applies to an assessment happening now?

The current arrangements still govern assessments taking place before implementation. The drafts describe where CQC is heading, not the standard you are being measured against today. Keep meeting current expectations while building evidence habits that will survive the change.

How this was written. Care Shield’s press desk drafts from primary sources — the statute book, regulator publications and government announcements — and publishes automatically once every factual claim traces to a named source. The sources are listed above so you can check them. It is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for reading the regulation that applies to your service. If you find something wrong, tell us at hello@careshieldcompliance.co.uk and we will correct it in public, on this page.

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