Well-led · KLOE 2
Workforce equity and culture
Is there an inclusive and fair culture that prioritises the safety and wellbeing of staff, supports speaking up and addresses workforce inequalities?
CQC wording, primary care and community services draft V6.0, pages 47 to 50.
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:
- Workforce diversity
- Workplace discrimination and equitable treatment of staff
- Bullying, harassment and victimisation of staff
- Gender pay gap
- Speaking up culture
- Staff feedback and surveys
- Freedom to Speak Up Guardian
- Whistleblowing
- Support and wellbeing of workforce
- Caseloads / workload and lone working
- Staff safety (including sexual safety)
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 47 to 50. 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
- Leaders and staff at all levels live the organisational values, which include a strong commitment to ensuring that equality, diversity and inclusion are embedded throughout the service.
- Leaders and staff are dedicated to ensuring high-quality and effective care for all people and communities served by the organisation.
- Leaders at all levels are held to account for modelling inclusive behaviours and addressing poor culture, with clear consequences where expectations are not met. Leaders demonstrate commitment to equality and diversity, leading by example to actively prevent discrimination and promote anti-racist principles.
- There is no bullying, harassment or discrimination in organisational practices. All staff, regardless of background, feel equally valued. There is an open culture where people feel psychologically safe to speak up about anything that gets in the way of providing high-quality care. The service uses innovative ways to ensure that processes for communication and to share information are transparent and accessible.
- Speaking up is embedded as a cultural norm. Leaders actively seek challenge and demonstrate through their actions that raising concerns leads to learning and improvement, not blame.
- The organisation’s open learning culture, the high morale and wellbeing of its staff, are conducive to the positive experience and outcomes of people using the service and those close to them.
- Feedback from staff, including complaints and concerns, is continuously taken into account to improve services and to improve people’s satisfaction with their care. These are seen as learning opportunities and leaders are held accountable for the commitments they make in this regard. Staff from all backgrounds are certain that their concerns will be listened to and acted on, without any fear of detriment.
- There are consistently high levels of satisfaction across the workforce, including among those with protected equality characteristics. Staff are proud of the organisation as a place to work, feel psychologically safe and speak highly of its open, inclusive and non-discriminatory culture.
- Staff wellbeing is a high priority for the organisation’s leadership. The service exceeds its statutory responsibilities for the health, safety and wellbeing of its staff. A variety of measures support flexible ways of working to improve the morale, retention and engagement of staff.
Good
- The service prioritises equality, diversity and inclusion, proactively identifying and addressing workforce inequalities. Anti-racism is reflected in the values of all staff and leaders.
- A culture of compassion, openness and continuous improvement is fostered. Information-sharing and communications processes with staff are transparent and accessible.
- Leaders are alert to anything that may demonstrate a poor culture and could affect staff or the quality of people’s care. They address this quickly.
- Recruitment and disciplinary processes are lawful, fair and are reviewed to ensure there is no disadvantage based on any specific protected equality characteristics.
- Leaders take action to prevent any disparities in the experience of staff with protected equality characteristics, or those from excluded and marginalised groups. Any interventions are monitored to evaluate their impact. Leaders make reasonable adjustments to support disabled staff to carry out their roles well.
- Leaders take steps to remove bias from processes to ensure equality of opportunity and experience for staff. This includes an ongoing review of policies and procedures to tackle institutional discrimination and bias to achieve a fair culture for all.
- There is zero tolerance for bullying, harassment and discrimination. The service supports staff who face discrimination, whether this comes from managers, colleagues or people using the service. There is a clear focus on supporting those with protected equality characteristics and those from excluded and marginalised groups.
- The service meets its statutory responsibilities for the health and safety of staff. It takes steps to support staff wellbeing through resources, rest, and cultivating a positive work environment.
- Staff receive culturally sensitive and non-discriminatory support. They feel listened to, valued and involved in decision making. Staff from different backgrounds feel they are treated equally.
- There are clear processes to enable staff to speak up. Staff are supported to give feedback, raise concerns, and contribute to improvements. There is a culture of speaking up where staff actively raise concerns, and those who do (including whistleblowers) are valued and supported. Staff feel confident that they will not be blamed or treated negatively if they raise concerns.
- When concerns are raised, leaders investigate sensitively and confidentially, and lessons are shared and acted on.
- Where in place, Freedom to Speak Up Guardians have access to dedicated time for their role, up-to-date training, and work proactively with the leaders to remove barriers to speaking up and to improve the speaking up culture.
Requires improvement
- The service does not sufficiently prioritise equality, diversity and inclusion.
- The causes of workforce inequality are not always identified or adequately addressed.
- Staff, including those with protected equality characteristics, do not always feel they are treated equitably.
- The culture may show elements of compassion, trust and inclusiveness, but these are not fully embedded.
- There is not enough reassurance that bullying, harassment and discrimination will not be tolerated.
- Speaking up processes are not sufficiently well advertised or understood.
- Staff are apprehensive about speaking up and are not certain that their concerns will be listened to and acted on.
- Feedback from staff, including complaints and concerns, is not always considered appropriately, and there is insufficient reassurance that this is used to make lasting improvements.
- Levels of staff satisfaction across the service vary and may be lower for those with protected equality characteristics.
- Staff wellbeing is not always sufficiently prioritised and there are low levels of staff morale and engagement.
Inadequate
- The principles of equality, diversity and inclusion are insufficiently embedded in the culture of the service. Inequality is not identified and addressed.
- Staff, especially those with protected equality characteristics, do not feel they are treated equitably.
- There are high levels of bullying, harassment, or discrimination, and the service is not taking adequate action to reduce this.
- There is no reassurance that staff concerns will be listened to or acted on.
- The culture of the service is closed and defensive, and there is no reassurance that whistleblowers will be treated fairly, without fear of detriment.
- Learning is not embedded in the organisational culture. There is a lack of leadership accountability or ownership regarding staff feedback and concerns.
- The wellbeing of staff is a very low priority and there are no measures to support flexibility and to improve staff morale and engagement.
- Staff do not feel pride in their organisation and would not recommend it to others as a place to work or receive care.
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.