Responsive · KLOE 1
Care provision, integration and continuity
Is care co-ordinated and delivered in a flexible, joined-up way that reflects diverse needs and promotes choice and continuity?
CQC wording, draft v9, pages 42 to 43.
Draft, not the current assessment framework
CQC's adult social care draft v9, dated 19 March 2026. The current quality statements remain in use.
CQC draft scope
What this proposed KLOE covers
Scope of this key line of enquiry and topic areas include:
- Collaborative, coordinated and flexible working
- Provision of services
- Continuity of care, support and treatment
How would this apply to your service?
The draft applies one framework across adult social care, but useful evidence depends on your service and people.
Source: Adult social care assessment framework, draft v9, 19 March 2026, pages 42 to 43.
HLTH analysis
What this could mean in practice
Care should be flexible, co-ordinated and continuous, reflecting diverse needs and addressing gaps across services or support networks.
Staff should understand each person's assessed needs and work with partners, commissioners and unpaid carers to provide joined-up support. Gaps, barriers or shortfalls should be recognised, acted on and escalated where appropriate.
Evidence and conversations to explore
- People's experience of continuity and flexibility
- Co-ordination with partners and unpaid carers
- Identification and escalation of care gaps
Questions worth asking
- How does support adapt to diverse needs and changing circumstances?
- How are responsibilities co-ordinated when several people or services provide support?
- What happens when an agreed element of care is delayed, missing or unsuitable?
HLTH's interpretation of CQC's 19 March 2026 draft. This is not current CQC guidance, an official interpretation, a checklist or a rating prediction. Reviewed 17 September 2026.
CQC draft rating characteristics
How the draft describes each rating
These are CQC's draft characteristics. CQC says rating characteristics guide judgements, they are not a mechanical checklist.
Outstanding
- The service actively embraces inclusion, ensuring choice, continuity and responsiveness that is equitable. It actively identifies and responds to those most at risk of experiencing poorer care or facing barriers to accessing care.
- The service proactively identifies and responds to challenges that could impact joint working across services.
- Services work in partnership with people and demonstrate a deep commitment to challenging themselves to tackle health inequalities
Good
- The service understands the diverse needs of the people who use it and tailors their support accordingly. This includes recognising and responding to the needs of people with protected equality characteristics and those most at risk of experiencing poorer care or facing barriers to accessing care.
- The service works collaboratively and flexibly with others. People experience continuity of care, support and treatment; this includes working with commissioners to manage continuity of care.
- Where support is provided by more than one service, or by unpaid carers, staff work in a planned, coordinated and flexible way to make sure care is joined up and meets people’s needs.
- Staff can identify and take appropriate action when there is a gap in care provision. This includes identifying and taking appropriate action where people are eligible to receive more care or support.
- People receive the care, support and treatment they are entitled to from the service, which has been arranged and/or funded for them.
Requires improvement
- The service does not fully understand the diverse needs of the people who use it, including people with protected equality characteristics and those most at risk of experiencing poorer care or facing barriers to accessing care. Care is not routinely tailored to meet their needs.
- People’s care, support and treatment is not always sufficiently co-ordinated or responsive. Care is not routinely delivered in a way that fully meets assessed needs or reasonably supports the choices of everyone using the service.
- Where a person is supported by more than one service or by unpaid carers, the service misses opportunities to make sure care is sufficiently co-ordinated, flexible and joined up.
- The service does not consistently take appropriate action or escalate issues where there are identified gaps in care provision, for example to commissioners.
- The service does not consistently deliver the full package of care, support or treatment that has been agreed and arranged.
Inadequate
- The service does not adequately understand the needs of all the people it supports. Support is not adequately tailored to meet a diverse range of needs which results in poor outcomes of care for people. This has a significant impact on people with protected equality characteristics and those most at risk of experiencing poorer care or facing barriers to accessing care.
- The service does not work in a co-ordinated or collaborative way with other providers or unpaid carers, who are involved in people’s care.
- There are significant shortfalls in meeting people’s assessed needs, including taking into account their choice of how care is delivered.
- The service fails to act or escalate issues where there are identified gaps in care provision, for example to commissioners.
Want to know how your service would fare?
Book a mock inspection run against the draft KLOEs, or call 020 8090 5346 to speak to one of our experts.