Draft framework. The 2026 sector frameworks are CQC drafts. This mapping is our analysis, not a CQC-published crosswalk.
Current position. The Single Assessment Framework and its 34 quality statements remain in force. Your service is still assessed against them.
Last reviewed. 24 July 2026.
If you have built your governance around the 34 quality statements of the current Single Assessment Framework, the natural worry about the proposed 2026 sector frameworks is simple: does my evidence still count?
The short answer is yes. We mapped all 34 current quality statements against the 26 assessment concepts in the four draft frameworks. Every 2026 concept traces back to a current quality statement. None is genuinely new.
The drafts do not invent a new definition of quality. They rename, merge, split and move the 34 statements you already work to. So the correct transition is to remap your evidence to the new headings, not to rebuild it. This page shows exactly where each of your current quality statements goes.
The mapping, statement by statement
Read this as: your current quality statement on the left, where its evidence lands in 2026 on the right. "Becomes" is a straight rename. "Broadens into" means the 2026 concept covers your statement plus a little more. "Merges into" means your statement joins others under one 2026 concept. "Splits across" means your evidence now answers two 2026 concepts.
Safe
| Current quality statement | Maps to under 2026 |
|---|---|
| Learning culture | broadens into Safety culture |
| Safe systems, pathways and transitions | becomes Safe systems, pathways and transitions |
| Safeguarding | becomes Safeguarding |
| Involving people to manage risks | broadens into Managing risks |
| Safe environments | merges into Safe environments and IPC |
| Safe and effective staffing | becomes Safe staffing |
| Infection prevention and control | merges into Safe environments and IPC |
| Medicines optimisation | becomes Safe delivery of medicines and treatments |
Effective
| Current quality statement | Maps to under 2026 |
|---|---|
| Assessing needs | becomes Assessing needs |
| Delivering evidence-based care and treatment | becomes Delivering evidence-based care and treatment |
| How staff, teams and services work together | splits across Safe systems, pathways and transitions, Care provision, integration and continuity |
| Supporting people to live healthier lives | becomes Supporting people to live healthier lives |
| Monitoring and improving outcomes | becomes Outcomes |
| Consent to care and treatment | becomes Consent to care and treatment |
Caring
| Current quality statement | Maps to under 2026 |
|---|---|
| Kindness, compassion and dignity | becomes Kindness, compassion and dignity |
| Treating people as individuals | merges into Person-centred care |
| Independence, choice and control | becomes Independence, choice and control |
| Responding to people's immediate needs | splits across Kindness, compassion and dignity, Person-centred care |
| Workforce wellbeing and enablement | merges into Workforce equity and culture |
Responsive
| Current quality statement | Maps to under 2026 |
|---|---|
| Person-centred care | merges into Person-centred care |
| Care provision, integration and continuity | becomes Care provision, integration and continuity |
| Providing information | splits across Equity in experience, Timely and equitable access |
| Listening to and involving people | becomes Listening and responding to feedback |
| Equity in access | broadens into Timely and equitable access |
| Equity in experiences and outcomes | splits across Equity in experience, Outcomes |
| Planning for the future | splits across Care provision, integration and continuity, Independence, choice and control |
Well-led
| Current quality statement | Maps to under 2026 |
|---|---|
| Shared direction and culture | becomes Strategic direction |
| Capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders | becomes Capable and compassionate leaders |
| Freedom to speak up | splits across Workforce equity and culture, Safety culture |
| Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion | merges into Workforce equity and culture |
| Governance, management and sustainability | splits across Governance, Management of risk, performance and issues |
| Partnerships and communities | becomes Partnerships and communities |
| Learning, improvement and innovation | becomes Improvement, innovation and learning |
| Environmental sustainability | merges into Strategic direction |
Most of your statements simply become their 2026 equivalent under a tidied name. That is the majority of the 34. The handful that move, merge or split are the ones worth reading closely.
The six changes worth knowing
These are the only structural moves. If your evidence for these areas is currently filed in one place, note where it now needs to point.
- Safe environments and infection prevention and control merge into one 2026 concept. Two current statements become one.
- Governance, management and sustainability splits into two: governance, and management of risk, performance and issues. Adult social care keeps them combined as one heading, but the underlying evidence is still the two things.
- Person-centred care moves from Responsive to Caring, and merges with Treating people as individuals. Your person-centred evidence consolidates.
- Workforce wellbeing moves from Caring to Well-led, joining workforce equality, diversity and inclusion under Workforce equity and culture.
- Equity in experiences and outcomes splits. The experience half becomes Equity in experience; the outcomes half is analysed under the Outcomes concept.
- Environmental sustainability folds into Strategic direction where the 2026 framework includes it. The adult social care draft currently excludes it, so this one is sector-dependent and may still change.
What to do with this
Do not rebuild. Nothing above requires new evidence. Your incidents, audits, safeguarding records, risk assessments, training records and governance minutes all carry across; the headings above them change.
Do build a cross-reference, not a new system. Take your current evidence for each quality statement and note its 2026 destination from the table. For the split rows, the same evidence now answers two concepts, so it needs to be reachable from both. That mapping is the whole transition task.
Watch the volatile rows. The drafts are not final. The mappings marked as merging or splitting, and environmental sustainability especially, are where CQC's final wording is most likely to differ. Do not hard-code these into your systems yet.
Do not pay anyone to make you compliant with the 2026 framework. It does not exist in final form. Including us. The honest work today is the cross-reference above, which you can do yourself in an afternoon.
Related guidance
- Start here: CQC's proposed 2026 assessment framework
- The framework in force today: the single assessment framework explained
- Sector detail: adult social care, hospitals, primary and community, mental health
- Regulation explainers: Regulation 12 safe care and treatment, Regulation 17 good governance
- Library: sample policies
Sources
- CQC, Appendix 1: The 34 quality statements (Review of CQC's single assessment framework and its implementation). The 34 statement names are current and published; verified 2026-07-24.
- CQC, four draft sector assessment frameworks, 19 March 2026.
The 34 quality statements are current CQC policy. The 26 canonical 2026 concepts and this mapping are our analysis of the non-final March 2026 drafts, not a CQC-published crosswalk. We will update this page when CQC publishes final frameworks or its own mapping. Where this page reads a likely destination for evidence, that is our reading as an ex-CQC inspector, not CQC guidance.