What Is the CQC Single Assessment Framework and How Does It Affect Your Policies

By Kizito Chukwude

If you have read our explainer on what the Single Assessment Framework is, you know that the framework reshapes how CQC assesses domiciliary care services. This guide picks up where the explainer leaves off. It is the practical compliance map: which of your policies need to address which Quality Statements, what CQC inspectors look for under each, and how to evidence compliance day-to-day rather than scrambling at inspection time.

For background context — what the framework is, why KLOEs were replaced, how scoring works — read the CQC Single Assessment Framework explained first. The rest of this guide assumes you have that grounding.

How the Mapping Works

Every Quality Statement under the Single Assessment Framework expects evidence from your service. Some of that evidence comes from feedback, observation, and outcomes — which you cannot directly write into a policy. But a substantial portion of the evidence comes from the Processes category: your policies, procedures, audits, training records, and governance systems.

Mapping your policies to Quality Statements is what allows you to demonstrate compliance under Processes deliberately rather than incidentally. A policy that does not address any Quality Statement is a candidate for review. A Quality Statement with no policy backing it is a gap.

Safe — Quality Statements and Policy Mapping

Under Safe, the Quality Statements that domiciliary care services need to evidence include S1 (learning culture), S2 (safe systems, pathways, and transitions), S3 (safeguarding), S4 (involving people to manage risks), S5 (safe environments), S6 (safe and effective staffing), S7 (infection prevention and control), and S8 (medicines optimisation).

Your safeguarding policy maps directly to S3. CQC inspectors look for clear referral pathways named to your local authority, an identified Designated Safeguarding Lead, evidence that staff understand the Care Act 2014 Section 42 threshold, and a documented log of concerns and outcomes that demonstrates a learning response — not just a reporting one. Your medication policy maps to S8: inspectors check competency assessment records, MAR audit cycles, and your procedure for medication errors. Your lone working policy maps to S5 and S6: inspectors look for risk assessments per service user, your check-in escalation procedure, and what staff do if they feel unsafe. Your infection prevention and control policy maps to S7: standard precautions, PPE protocols, hand hygiene, outbreak management.

The thread running through every Safe Quality Statement is learning. CQC wants to see that when something goes wrong, the system improves. Evidence of pure reporting without learning consistently scores lower than evidence of learning loops, even when raw incident numbers are similar.

Effective — Quality Statements and Policy Mapping

Effective covers E1 (assessing needs), E2 (delivering evidence-based care), E3 (how staff, teams, and services work together), E4 (supporting people to live healthier lives), E5 (monitoring and improving outcomes), and E6 (consent to care).

Your care planning policy maps to E1 and E5: inspectors look for assessment templates that genuinely capture individual need, evidence of regular review, and outcomes data that shows whether the plan is working. Your Mental Capacity Act policy maps to E6: inspectors look for documented capacity assessments using the two-stage test, best-interests decision records where applicable, and staff who can describe the five MCA principles in their own words. Your training and induction policy maps to E2 and E3: a training matrix with mandatory subjects, completion dates, and refresher schedules — plus evidence of multi-disciplinary working with GPs, district nurses, and hospital teams.

Inspectors increasingly probe the gap between what your training records say and what staff actually demonstrate when asked. If your records show 100% medication training completion but staff cannot describe the medication error procedure, that gap is visible and scored.

Caring — Quality Statements and Policy Mapping

Caring covers C1 (kindness, compassion and dignity), C2 (treating people as individuals), C3 (independence, choice and control), and C4 (responding to people's immediate needs).

Your dignity and respect policy maps to C1, and your equality, diversity and inclusion policy maps to C2 and C3. Inspectors look for evidence that the policies are operationalised in practice — care plans that capture what matters to the person (not just what is needed for them), accessible-format communications, and care worker behaviour that respects privacy and choice. Inspectors weight feedback from people using your service heavily under Caring. A policy that is correct on paper but contradicted by feedback will not score well.

Responsive — Quality Statements and Policy Mapping

Responsive covers R1 (person-centred care), R2 (care provision, integration and continuity), R3 (providing information), R4 (listening to and involving people), and R5 (equity in experience and outcomes).

Your complaints policy maps to R4. Inspectors look for the policy itself plus a complaints log showing receipt, acknowledgement timeframes, investigation, response, and learning shared. Your information sharing and accessibility policy maps to R3: evidence of accessible-format options, easy-read versions where needed, and translated documents for service users whose first language is not English. Your end-of-life or palliative care policy, where applicable, maps to R1 and R5.

Well-Led — Quality Statements and Policy Mapping

Well-Led covers W1 (shared direction and culture), W2 (capable, compassionate, inclusive leaders), W3 (freedom to speak up), W4 (workforce equality, diversity and inclusion), W5 (governance, management and sustainability), W6 (partnerships and communities), W7 (learning, improvement and innovation), and W8 (environmental sustainability).

Your governance and quality assurance policy maps to W5: audit schedules (medication, care plan, spot checks), the schedule of reviews, action tracking, and evidence that audit findings drive change. Your whistleblowing policy maps to W3: a clear procedure, a named contact route outside line management, and assurance that workers can raise concerns without reprisal. Your supervision policy maps to W2 and W4: documented supervision frequency, content, and outcomes. Your duty of candour policy threads through Well-Led and Safe: notifications, written follow-up, and evidence of openness when things go wrong.

Well-Led is the Quality Statement cluster where the gap between Good and Outstanding is largest. A passable Well-Led score requires governance that runs. A high score requires governance that visibly drives improvement and that staff describe in their own words.

How to Evidence Compliance Continuously

Mapping is only half the work. The other half is generating ongoing evidence so CQC can score you accurately under continuous assessment. Practical steps:

• Run a quarterly self-audit using the Quality Statement structure: pick three Quality Statements per quarter, ask what evidence you would show CQC today, and document any gaps.
• Build a feedback cycle into your operating rhythm: regular service-user surveys, staff pulse surveys, and structured contact with commissioners and GPs. Capture results in a way that maps back to Quality Statements under People, Staff, and Partners evidence categories.
• Tighten the loop between incident reporting and policy revision. If an incident reveals a policy gap, the policy update should be tracked and dated. CQC will look for that linkage.
• Keep your training matrix and supervision logs current and accessible. These are the most asked-for evidence artefacts in domiciliary care inspections.
• For broader documentation requirements, see our registered manager documents guide.

What Inspectors Actually Ask Under Each Quality Statement

Inspectors increasingly use scenario-based questioning. Rather than "do you have a safeguarding policy?", they ask, "tell me about a recent safeguarding concern and how you handled it." Rather than "what is your audit schedule?", they ask, "what did your last medication audit find and what did you do about it?" Your answer is the evidence. Your policy frames the answer; your records substantiate it; your team's lived behaviour confirms it.

Preparing for this is not about memorising lines. It is about ensuring that on any given Tuesday, your governance loops are running, your records are current, and your team understands the procedures because they have used them.

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