Adult Social Care Assurance

From April 2023, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has a new duty to assess local authorities’ delivery of their adult social care duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. This puts adult social care on par with NHS organisations and care providers already assessed by CQC and children’s services who are assessed by Ofsted.

CQC will use a consistent set of key themes when assessing local authorities, providers, and integrated care systems.

Local authority assessment framework

There are four key themes for local authority assessment:

• Working with people
• Providing support 
• How the local authority ensures safety within the system
• Leadership

During the local authority assessment, CQC will carry out case reviews, review evidence and data provided, the local authority’s own self-assessment and meet with staff, key stakeholders and people with lived experience.

CQC completed five pilot local authority assessments in 2023 and have published reports on the pilot assessments including indicative ratings.

CQC is planning to assess all local authorities over the next two years starting in December 2023.