Responsive · KLOE 4

Equity in experience

Does the service tailor people's care, treatment and support effectively, to ensure equity in experience?

CQC wording, secondary and specialist hospital care draft v0.6, pages 46 to 48.

Draft, not the current assessment framework

CQC's secondary and specialist hospital care draft v0.6, published 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:

The draft applies one framework across secondary and specialist hospital care, but useful evidence depends on your service and people.

Source: CQC, Hospitals (secondary and specialist care) assessment framework, draft v0.6, 19 March 2026, pages 46 to 48. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

CQC draft rating characteristics

These are CQC's draft characteristics. CQC says rating characteristics guide judgements, they are not a mechanical checklist.

The service is an exemplar in its approach to equity and inclusivity. People feel their diversity is valued and that the service has a proven commitment to anti-racism, equity, and inclusion.
People feel empowered to understand their rights and give their views. The service genuinely understands people’s needs, so is able to anticipate any necessary adjustments.
Staff actively seek feedback on people’s experiences of discrimination and inequality. They can show evidence of improvements in people’s experience and outcomes of care as a result.
The service models a commitment to identifying and addressing discrimination and inequality that could disadvantage different groups of people using their services. Staff foster a psychologically safe culture where these issues are addressed transparently.
Staff show a relentless focus on ensuring equally good experiences and achieving equity by recognising barriers, acting on information and allocating resources to improve outcomes. A culture of continuous learning and innovation is embedded throughout the service.
People are confident that their information and communication needs have been identified and recorded in a way that is inclusive, continuously reviewed and shared to support person-centred care and treatment, and that information is tailored to these needs.

The service empowers people to understand their legal rights to equity of care and their fundamental human rights. They expect that these rights will be met.
People’s experiences of discrimination, inequality and infringement of their rights are listened to and acted on to improve care.
Staff are aware of how discrimination, whether societal or institutional, can disadvantage different groups of people using their services.
Staff work proactively to achieve equity. They do this by recognising barriers, collecting and acting on evidence (including people’s experiences), and by allocating resources to reduce barriers and improve people’s experiences and outcomes.
The service complies with legal equality and human rights requirements, including avoiding discrimination, having regard to the needs of people with different protected equality characteristics and making reasonable adjustments to support equity in experience and outcomes.
People’s information and communication needs are identified, met and reviewed to support their care and treatment.

People do not always understand their rights, including their equality and human rights.
People do not always feel that the service and staff welcome their views about their experiences. If they have experienced discrimination and inequality, they do not feel that their experiences are listened to or acted on.
People with protected equality characteristics do not always feel confident that their views about their experiences will be responded to effectively or compassionately.
Staff do not consistently understand what causes discrimination and inequality that could disadvantage groups of people using their services.
Staff work reactively to achieve equity in people’s experiences. Systems and processes to gather, use and monitor information about equity in access and outcomes are not always effective. Where this information is available, it is not always used to recognise and respond to the experiences and outcomes of people and their communities.
The service does not comply with all legal equality and human rights requirements. They may not necessarily be aware of non-compliance and be taking actions to address these areas.
People do not consistently receive information tailored to their needs, for example through culturally-sensitive reasonable adjustments, accessible information, interpretation and translation, and support to use digital services. These needs are not always identified, recorded, continuously met and reviewed.

People do not understand their rights, including their equality and human rights, and are not supported to do so. Their experiences of discrimination and inequality are not listened to or acted on.
Positive experiences and outcomes of care are declining.
The service and staff do not welcome people’s views about their experiences.
Staff are not aware of discrimination and inequality that could disadvantage groups of people using their services, and this is not a focus in planning and delivering the service. They have not established any links to local communities or made use of available data and research to help understand and respond to these barriers.
Staff do not recognise when experiences and outcomes are not equal. They do not identify or address barriers to equity, or act on information they receive to improve people’s experiences and outcomes. People feel strongly that their protected equality characteristic, ethnicity or culture has a negative impact on how they are cared for.
The service does not comply with all legal equality and human rights requirements and is not aware of where there is non-compliance.
People do not receive information tailored to their needs, for example the service does not provide culturally-sensitive reasonable adjustments, accessible information, interpretation and translation or support to use digital services. These needs are not identified, recorded, met, or reviewed.

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