Caring · KLOE 2
Person-centred care
Is care and treatment delivered in a person-centred way?
CQC wording, mental health care draft, pages 41 to 42.
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:
- Empowerment and decision making
- Personal, cultural, social and religious needs
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 41 to 42. 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
- People’s individual needs and preferences are at the heart of the service, which delivers a fully tailored, holistic care experience.
- Staff recognise and respect the totality of people’s needs. They always take people’s personal, cultural, social and religious needs into account, and find innovative ways to meet them.
- There is a proactive approach to understanding the needs and preferences of different groups of people and to delivering care in a way that meets these needs, which is accessible and promotes equality. This includes people with protected equality characteristics, people who may be approaching the end of their life, people from different cultural backgrounds and people who are in vulnerable circumstances or who have complex needs.
Good
- People receive the most appropriate and personalised care and treatment for them and the service takes a trauma-informed approach, making reasonable adjustments where necessary.
- Staff treat people as individuals, considering any relevant protected equality characteristics. They ensure people's personal, cultural, social and religious needs are understood and met.
- Staff understand people’s needs, which results in positive experiences and better care outcomes.
- People's communication needs are met to enable them to engage in decisions about their care and treatment, to enhance both their experience and outcomes.
- There is a balanced and proportionate approach to supporting people and respecting the choices they make about their care, treatment and support.
- People are supported to understand their rights and their understanding is reviewed throughout their care and treatment.
- People feel involved in their care, with opportunities to suggest treatment options and participate in decisions. People and those close to them and advocates, are regularly involved in planning, and are fully supported and empowered to make decisions about care and treatment, where appropriate.
- People feel involved in their care, with opportunities to suggest treatment options and participate in decisions.
- Named key workers play a crucial role in advocating for people and their needs.
- Staff make sure people and those close to them, can make choices about accessing and using technology where it is available to support the delivery of care, treatment and support.
Requires improvement
- Services are not delivered in a person-centred way that focuses on people’s holistic needs.
- People’s emotional, social, cultural or religious needs are not always viewed as important or reflected in their care, treatment and support.
- People feel excluded from care planning, with little involvement in treatment and decisions about medicines.
- Staff may focus on the task rather than treating people as an individual.
- There is some flexibility to take account of individual needs as they arise, but the service does not meet the needs of all the people who use it.
- There are shortfalls in how the needs and preferences of different people are taken into account, for example on the grounds of protected equality characteristics and for people who may be approaching the end of their life, who are in vulnerable circumstances or who have complex needs.
- Staff do not always adhere to the Mental Health Act Code of Practice. Deviation from Code of Practice guidance is not always clearly recorded.
Inadequate
- People feel dismissed, belittled or ignored and not listened to. This contributes to deterioration, relapse, and re-admission where concerns are missed.
- Poor communication with support workers creates confusion for people and a deterioration in their mental well-being.
- Services are planned and delivered without consideration of people’s needs and preferences.
- People’s basic needs are not met.
- Their emotional, social, cultural or religious preferences and choices are not considered in their care, treatment and support.
- Some people are unable to use the service because it does not meet their needs or preferences.
- Staff fail to comply with the Mental Health Act Code of Practice or other legislation.
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.