Caring · KLOE 1
Kindness, compassion and dignity
Are people treated with kindness, empathy, compassion and respect, and is their privacy and dignity maintained?
CQC wording, mental health care draft, pages 38 to 40.
Draft, not the current assessment framework
CQC's mental health care draft, 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:
- Respect and dignity
- Caring and compassion staff
- Privacy and confidentiality
- Emotional wellbeing
- Communication
- Anticipating need and responding quickly
- Consistent trauma informed relational practice
- Cultural sensitivity and anti-discriminatory approach
How would this apply to your service?
The draft applies one framework across mental health care, but useful evidence depends on your service and people.
Source: CQC, Mental health care assessment framework, draft, 19 March 2026, pages 38 to 40. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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 has an exceptional, values-driven culture of person-centred, trauma-informed and non-discriminatory care. Staff show deep cultural sensitivity, proactively challenge inequity and protect people’s privacy, dignity and individual identity.
- People consistently report feeling genuinely cared for, respected and understood. Those who have experienced discrimination or marginalisation describe compassionate, equitable care that exceeds expectations.
- Staff demonstrate exemplary therapeutic relationships, showing kindness, patience, empathy and curiosity. They anticipate discomfort or distress and use trauma-informed approaches to maintain emotional safety and prevent escalation.
- Feedback from people and those close to them and external partners is consistently positive, reflecting the strong, trusting relationships at the heart of the service. Staff provide holistic support that addresses people’s emotional, psychological, cultural, social and physical needs.
Good
- People are cared for with kindness, compassion, dignity and respect by all those involved in their care. People experience care and treatment in a nurturing and supportive environment. Staff communicate clearly, in a kind and respectful way. They listen actively to people to understand and respond to their individual needs and preferences. Families, carers and advocates are listened to, and communicated with, clearly and respectfully.
- Staff genuinely care about people’s wellbeing and show it in a thoughtful, meaningful way. They quickly anticipate and prioritise people’s comfort and wellbeing, using appropriate tools and communication to meet people’s individual needs effectively and avoid any preventable discomfort, concern or distress. When people show discomfort or distress or have urgent needs, staff respond in a positive way. This protects people’s rights and dignity, and staff learn to understand the causes of people’s distress in order to avoid it happening again.
- Staff understand and support people’s human rights to ensure that privacy, confidentiality, and respect are consistently upheld where possible.
- There is a culture of kindness and respect across teams and partner organisations. Staff display positive behaviours when they interact with people, including when they talk about them with other professionals and stakeholders.
- People and those close to them are aware of support networks, community services, and the options for advocacy support to help them navigate their care journey.
- Where people are subject to the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA), care and treatment is provided with dignity and respect, and the MHA Code of Practice is complied with. Any departure from the Code of Practice guidance is clearly justified and recorded.
Requires improvement
- People are not always cared for with kindness, compassion, dignity and respect. They do not always experience care and treatment in a nurturing and supportive environment.
- Some people who use the service, those who are close to them and other stakeholders have concerns about the way staff treat people.
- Staff do not always prioritise people’s privacy, dignity and confidentiality.
- Staff do not always understand the need to make sure that people’s privacy and dignity is always maintained. While this may not be intentional, it results in people not always feeling they are respected, valued or safe.
- The service does not prioritise a caring environment.
- Staff are reactive when people experience preventable harm, concern or distress.
Inadequate
- People are not cared for with kindness, compassion, dignity and respect. They do not experience care and treatment in a nurturing and supportive environment.
- People’s privacy, dignity and confidentiality is not respected. There is a demonstrable lack of understanding of privacy, dignity and confidentiality or staff do not see this as a priority.
- The lack of kindness, respect and compassion is usually serious and widespread. People feel staff do not take them seriously, leading to feeling that staff do not care about them.
- People do not feel cared for and feedback about staff interactions is negative.
- Staff are rude, impatient, judgmental, disrespectful or dismissive of people using their services or of those close to them.
- People do not receive support to cope emotionally with their care and condition.
- The routines and preferences of staff take priority, and they have little understanding of the impact of this approach on the wellbeing and needs of people using the service.
- The service does not provide a caring environment and approach to people’s care and treatment. People feel undermined, belittled and ignored by staff.
- Staff do not respond when people experience preventable discomfort, concern or distress.
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.