CQC mock
inspection tool

How to run a mock inspection with this tool

A mock inspection is only useful if it is honest. The aim is to find the gaps an inspector would find, while you still have time to close them.

1. Pick one location and one person to own it. Usually the registered manager, with a senior carer or deputy who knows the daily records. Bands mean nothing if they mix several services.
2. Score from evidence, not memory. For each statement, open the actual record: the audit, the care plan, the training matrix, the complaints log. If you cannot find it in a few minutes, an inspector will not find it either.
3. Tick only the evidence categories you could show today. “We do ask families” is not people's experience evidence unless the feedback is written down and dated.
4. Talk to people and staff. Ask two or three people who use the service, a relative and a few staff the questions in the hints. Their answers are evidence too, and often the quickest way to spot a gap.
5. Work the gap list. Statements scored 1 come first, then 2, then good scores with thin evidence. Give each action an owner and a date outside this tool, then print or save the report as a PDF for your governance file.
6. Re-run it. Your progress is saved in this browser, so you can come back after actions close and re-score. Keep the old PDFs to show improvement over time.

How the five key questions and quality statements fit together

CQC asks five key questions of every service: is it safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led? Under the single assessment framework, each key question is broken into quality statements, which are written as “we statements” describing what good care looks like. There are 34 in total.

Safe (8)	Learning culture; safe systems, pathways and transitions; safeguarding; involving people to manage risks; safe environments; safe and effective staffing; infection prevention and control; medicines optimisation
Effective (6)	Assessing needs; delivering evidence-based care and treatment; how staff, teams and services work together; supporting people to live healthier lives; monitoring and improving outcomes; consent to care and treatment
Caring (5)	Kindness, compassion and dignity; treating people as individuals; independence, choice and control; responding to people's immediate needs; workforce wellbeing and enablement
Responsive (7)	Person-centred care; care provision, integration, and continuity; providing information; listening to and involving people; equity in access; equity in experiences and outcomes; planning for the future
Well-led (8)	Shared direction and culture; capable, compassionate and inclusive leaders; freedom to speak up; workforce equality, diversity and inclusion; governance, management and sustainability; partnerships and communities; learning, improvement and innovation; environmental sustainability – sustainable development

Inspectors score each quality statement they assess from 1 (significant shortfalls) to 4 (exceptional standard), based on the evidence in the relevant categories. CQC then adds up the statement scores under a key question, divides by the maximum possible and turns the percentage into a rating: 25 to 38% inadequate, 39 to 62% requires improvement, 63 to 87% good, 88% and above outstanding. A statement scored 1 limits a key question that would otherwise be good to requires improvement, and a statement scored 1 or 2 limits one that would otherwise be outstanding to good.

This tool applies the same thresholds to your own scores. To stay on the cautious side it rounds the percentage down, and any statement scored 1 caps the band at requires improvement whatever the total. Bands are worked out from the statements you have scored so far, so the summary shows how many that is. CQC's inspectors also use professional judgement and their own evidence, so treat every band as indicative.

The six evidence categories

CQC groups the evidence it looks at into six categories. It does not expect every category for every statement; which ones it focuses on depends on the statement and the type of service. The tick boxes in the tool let you see where your evidence is thin.

• People's experience of health and care services: what people who use the service, and their families and carers, say about their care, through surveys, compliments, complaints, reviews and conversations.
• Feedback from staff and leaders: what staff and managers say in interviews, supervisions, team meetings and staff surveys.
• Feedback from partners: what GPs, community nurses, commissioners, local authorities and other professionals say about working with you.
• Observation: what an inspector sees on site, from how staff speak to people to the state of the premises and equipment.
• Processes: your policies, audits, risk assessments, training records, rotas and the systems that keep care consistent.
• Outcomes: measurable results for people, such as falls, pressure ulcers, weight, hospital admissions or goals met.

Common gaps a mock inspection turns up

• Evidence that exists but cannot be found. The audit was done, but it lives in someone's inbox or a folder nobody else can open.
• Audits without closed actions. A medicines or infection control audit lists problems, and the next audit lists the same ones.
• Care plans not updated after a change. A fall, a hospital stay or a new diagnosis is in the daily notes but not in the plan or risk assessment.
• Mental capacity assessments that are not decision-specific. One blanket assessment instead of one for each decision, with no record of who was involved in best-interest decisions.
• Feedback collected but not acted on. Surveys and complaints are logged, but there is no record of what changed as a result.
• Staff who cannot explain how to raise a concern. Safeguarding and whistleblowing policies are signed, but staff are unsure who they would go to outside their manager.
• Training and supervision out of date. The matrix shows expired training or supervisions that slipped during busy months.

Questions

Sources

All checked on 15 October 2026. Quality statement names are CQC's; the hints in the tool are our own plain-English summaries.

• CQC: Assessment framework (key questions and quality statements)
• Quality statements by key question: Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-led
• CQC: Evidence categories
• CQC: How we reach a rating (1 to 4 scoring and percentage thresholds)
• CQC: Levels of ratings and rating principles
• CQC: How we gather evidence
• CQC: Our March update (24 March 2026), draft sector-specific frameworks
• CQC: Give your views on draft sector-specific assessment frameworks (closed 12 June 2026)
• CQC: Our improvement plans for 2026