Safe · KLOE 4
Safeguarding
Are there systems and processes in place to safeguard people from abuse and improper treatment and support their right to live safely?
CQC wording, primary care and community services draft V6.0, pages 10 to 12.
Draft, not the current assessment framework
CQC's primary care and community services draft V6.0, 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:
- Safeguarding systems, processes and practices
- Protection of human rights
- Discrimination, including in relation to protected equality characteristics
- Harassment and victimisation
- Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) (Liberty Protection Safeguards)
How would this apply to your service?
The draft applies one framework across primary care and community services, but useful evidence depends on your service and people.
Source: CQC, Primary care and community services assessment framework, draft V6.0, 19 March 2026, pages 10 to 12. 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
- There is a robust safeguarding system, with clear roles and responsibilities, through which safeguarding risks are proactively identified and mitigated.
- There is a strong and proactive commitment to taking immediate action to keep people safe from abuse and neglect. This includes building strong relationships with partners and developing clear processes to work together across services. The service supports wider system learning through its external safeguarding reporting, where appropriate.
Good
- There are effective safeguarding systems, processes and practices to make sure people are appropriately protected from abuse, neglect and degradation and that their human rights are upheld. These are communicated effectively with people, visitors and staff. Where children and young people use the service, safeguarding arrangements are in line with national guidance and best practice.
- Staff have a good understanding of safeguarding, appropriate for their role, and know how to recognise and report signs of abuse. There are clear roles and responsibilities around safeguarding. Staff understand their individual responsibilities in preventing discrimination in relation to protected equality characteristics.
- Staff show a demonstrable commitment to taking immediate action to keep people safe from abuse and neglect. This includes working with partners in a collaborative way.
- People are supported to understand what safeguarding and keeping safe mean. They understand how to raise concerns for themselves and others and are encouraged and empowered to do so.
- People are protected from discrimination, harassment, and victimisation, including behaviour that may amount to abuse, psychological harm, or a hate crime. This includes discrimination related to protected equality characteristics. There are effective processes in place to prevent discrimination, promote equality, and to act when discrimination occurs.
- Staff understand what creates a closed culture and the risk this poses to people’s safety. There are systems and processes in place to prevent closed cultures from developing, ensuring everyone can raise concerns without fear.
- There is a clear understanding of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), they are used appropriately and only when it is in the best interest of the person.
Requires improvement
- Safeguarding systems, processes and practices are not always reliable or appropriate to keep people safe.
- Staff have a limited understanding of what the term safeguarding means. Staff are not always clear on how to recognise abuse or who to report it to.
- Staff do not always take immediate action to keep people safe from abuse and neglect.
- There is an inconsistent approach to helping people to understand what safeguarding means and how to raise concerns when they don’t feel safe.
- The service inconsistently protects people from discrimination, harassment and victimisation. There are processes in place to prevent discrimination, and promote equality, but they are inconsistently applied. Staff do not always act when discrimination occurs.
- Staff have a limited understanding of what creates a closed culture. There are some systems and processes in place to prevent a closed culture, although these may not be effective.
- There is a limited understanding of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and they are not always used appropriately.
Inadequate
- Safeguarding systems, processes and practices are not fit for purpose.
- Safeguarding is not a priority. Staff do not recognise or respond appropriately to signs of abuse, and they do not take immediate action to keep people safe.
- People are not helped to understand what safeguarding means or how to raise concerns when they don’t feel safe.
- People are not protected from discrimination, harassment or victimisation. There are no processes in place to prevent discrimination and promote equality. Staff do not act when discrimination occurs.
- Staff have a poor understanding of what creates a closed culture and there are no systems in place to prevent one developing.
- There is no understanding of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and they are not used appropriately or in the best interest of the person.
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.