Effective · KLOE 1
Assessing needs
Are people’s needs holistically assessed and reviewed with them, and their families and carers, to maximise the effectiveness of their care, treatment and support?
CQC wording, mental health care draft, pages 25 to 28.
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:
- Assessing people’s needs (including accessibility and communication needs)
- Person-centred approach to assessment
- Carer assessments and support
- Care planning
- Clinical assessment tools
- Lawful, rights-upholding assessment
- Trauma-informed assessment
- Systematic consideration of neurodiversity and co-occurring conditions
- Physical health needs assessments
- Assessing any drug and alcohol dependence
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 25 to 28. 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 shows an exceptional and unwavering commitment to equity and inclusion. Care plans proactively identify and address inequalities or vulnerabilities that could lead to exclusion, ensuring support is fair, personalised and removes barriers to participation and wellbeing.
- Staff anticipate people’s emotions, distress and early warning signs with insight and professional curiosity. Their consistently compassionate and attuned support prevents deterioration, fosters psychological safety and results in excellent and improving outcomes.
- Carers and advocates are active partners in care, and their needs are assessed and supported. Risk assessments are developed collaboratively, proportionate and empowering. In mental health units, information about the use of force is co-produced with people with lived experience and provided promptly in accessible formats.
Good
- Assessments and care plans are person-centred. They reflect people’s physical, mental, emotional, sensory, cultural, social, and communication needs. They also include the needs of people who may have more than one condition or diagnosis, and needs related to protected equality characteristics.
- People and those close to them and advocates are involved in the assessment of their individual needs. They are confident that their needs have been assessed, are fully understood, and that they will be supported to maximise their involvement in an environment that is suited to their needs.
- Person-centred assessments enable people to receive care or treatment that has the best possible outcomes. Assessments focus on people’s strengths, understand neurodiversity and co-occurring conditions and staff use a trauma-informed approach to during assessments.
- Staff use a range of tools to assess and anticipate people’s needs, wellbeing, emotions and level of distress to ensure those needs are understood and reflected in assessments. Staff have a compassionate and person-centred approach, using assessments to prevent deterioration or escalation.
- Assessments are completed at the earliest opportunity, kept up-to-date and regularly reviewed with the person and those close to them, where possible.
- Where appropriate, families, carers, advocates, professionals and other stakeholders are proactively identified and meaningfully involved in the assessment of people’s needs and when reviewing them.
- The needs of people’s carers are also assessed and met. This supports their health and wellbeing in their carer roles and helps them to provide safe and effective care to the people they support.
- Where people are subject to the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA), their rights are protected and staff comply with the MHA Code of Practice. Any departure from the Code of Practice guidance is clearly justified, risk-assessed and communicated openly to people and those close to them, where appropriate.
- For mental health units: information for people, and their families about the use of force by staff is made available as soon after admission as possible. It is available in a range of formats to meet individual needs including easy to read format.
Requires improvement
- Assessments and care plans do not consistently reflect people’s holistic needs.
- People are not consistently involved, or supported to be involved, in the assessment of their needs. They are not confident that their individual needs have been appropriately assessed or do not consistently understand the assessment process.
- Care assessments do not consider the full range of people’s diverse needs, including those related to protected equality characteristics, communication, nutrition, hydration and pain relief.
- People’s needs, emotions or levels of distress are not consistently or routinely assessed, or there are limited tools available to support staff to understand and reflect them in assessments and care plans.
- Assessments are not consistently up-to-date, or there are delays in completing them. People’s care, treatment and support needs are not routinely reviewed, where appropriate.
- The needs of carers of people using services are not consistently considered as a priority in helping them to provide safe and effective care to the people they support.
- Risk assessments about care are not consistently person-centred or proportionate. They may not be reviewed regularly or reviewed with the person, where possible.
- Staff do not always adhere to the Mental Health Act Code of Practice. Deviation from Code of Practice guidance is not always clearly recorded.
- For mental health units: information for people and their families about the use of force by staff is only available in a single format or is not routinely provided.
Inadequate
- Care plans are not tailored to people’s individual requirements because assessments do not consider their holistic needs.
- People are not routinely involved in the assessment of their needs, or they are assessed in a way they do not understand.
- Assessments and care plans do not reflect people’s diverse needs. Discriminatory decisions may have been made related to people’s protected equality characteristics. Care or treatment is based on discriminatory decisions rather than a full assessment of a person’s needs, including those related to communication, nutrition, hydration and pain relief.
- People’s needs, emotions or levels of distress are not included in their needs assessment. Staff do not have tools available to support them to understand people.
- Assessments are delayed, not completed or not updated. People’s care, treatment and support needs are not reviewed where appropriate, including after incidents.
- The needs of carers of people using services are not considered to help them provide safe and effective care to the people they support.
- Risk assessments about care are not person-centred or proportionate.
- Staff fail to comply with the Mental Health Act Code of Practice or other legislation.
- The service does not provide any information for people and their families about the use of force by staff.
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.