We have set out what Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate Adult Social Care would look like across each of the key areas that we will routinely inspect services against.
From next month, we will roll out our new approach to regulating Adult Social Care in England. Specialist teams, including trained members of the public (called Experts by Experience) will inspect services against what matters most to the people who use them – are they safe, caring, effective, responsive to their needs, and well-led.
We will then rate these services as Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate so that you have clear information to help you make choices about your care.
Following our public consultation and testing earlier this year, we have published the questions (called 'key lines of enquiry') that our inspection teams will use to guide them on their visits, as well as descriptions of what care would look like for each of these ratings.
The guidance will be used by our inspection teams when they inspect care homes and community services to help us be consistent when making our judgements.
For care providers, it can help them to understand the sorts of things that our inspection teams will be focusing on and to help them to know what we will be looking for when awarding our ratings.
Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, said: "The key lines of enquiry and ratings characteristics are an important part of our new approach to inspecting and rating Adult Social Care in England, which we will roll out formally from next month.
"They will allow our inspectors to really get under the skin of adult social care services across England so that providers know what we are expecting and families and how we will consistently rate their services.
"The key lines of enquiry and ratings characteristics have been developed after extensive engagement, testing and consultation with people who use services, carers, providers, commissioners and national partners. I am very grateful to everyone who has been involved in helping to shape and design the questions we will ask and the characteristics of the ratings. I am sure that this will mean people can be confident in the judgements our inspections will make."
We have published separate key lines of enquiry and ratings characteristics for residential (care homes, with and without nursing) and community services (when people receive care in their own homes, including Shared Lives and supported living services).
The key lines of enquiry and ratings characteristics have been developed after extensive engagement, testing and consultation with people who use services, carers, providers, commissioners and national partners.
Andrea Sutcliffe, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care