Kindness, compassion and dignity
Are people treated with kindness, empathy, compassion and respect, and is their privacy and dignity maintained?
In brief
Kindness, compassion and dignity is key line of enquiry 1 under the Caring key question in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) draft adult social care assessment framework (v9, 19 March 2026), currently published for consultation. It covers dignity, respect and privacy, confidentiality, communication, caring and compassion, emotional wellbeing, anticipating need and responding quickly. CQC describes performance against it at four rating levels: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement and Inadequate. Each statement and rating characteristic quoted here is reproduced verbatim from CQC's draft; plain-English summaries are HLTH's own.
- Key question
- Caring
- Line of enquiry
- KLOE 1 of 3 under Caring
- Rating levels
- Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement, Inadequate
- Source
- Adult social care assessment framework, v9 (19 March 2026)
- Status
- Draft, published by CQC for consultation
- Reference
- pp. 33–35 of the CQC draft
Scope and topic areas
What this line of enquiry covers
Scope of this key line of enquiry and topic areas include:
- Dignity, respect and privacy
- Confidentiality
- Communication
- Caring and compassion
- Emotional wellbeing
- Anticipating need and responding quickly
Rating characteristics
How CQC describes each rating
The four characteristic sets for this KLOE, best to worst. Every point is CQC's wording, reproduced exactly.
Outstanding
In plain terms: Care is exceptional and consistently better than the Good standard.
- There is a visible culture of kindness and respect across all staff in all roles, which is embedded into every interaction.
- Staff in all roles are highly motivated and enabled to offer care and support that is genuinely compassionate and kind and is evident through strong communication and connections. Staff care for individual people and each other in a way that exceeds expectations.
- The service ensures that staff focus on building and maintaining open and honest relationships with people and their families, friends and other carers and those close to them.
Good
In plain terms: The service meets the expected standard.
- There is a culture of kindness and respect across teams. People feel cared for with kindness, compassion, dignity and respect.
- Staff communicate clearly, in a kind and respectful way. They actively listen to people to understand and respond to their individual needs and preferences. Staff understand what privacy and dignity specifically means for the individual people they support.
- Staff genuinely care about people’s wellbeing and show it in a thoughtful, meaningful way. They promptly respond to people’s emotions, discomfort, distress, or urgent needs in a positive way. This protects their rights and dignity and staff learn to understand the causes of people’s distress to avoid it happening again in the future.
- People’s privacy, confidentiality, and respect are consistently upheld. Staff are discreet and challenge behaviour and practices that fall short of this. Staff have a clear understanding of the boundaries of confidentiality and work within these.
- Staff prioritise and anticipate people’s comfort and wellbeing needs. They use appropriate tools and communication to meet needs effectively and to avoid any preventable discomfort, concern or distress.
Requires improvement
In plain terms: The service is not yet Good and has areas that must improve.
- People are not consistently treated with kindness, compassion, dignity and respect. There may be concerns about the way some staff treat people.
- Not all communication is clear, kind or respectful. Staff do not take the time to actively listen to people and do not understand people’s individual needs and preferences or deliver care in line with these.
- Staff do not consistently respond appropriately to people’s discomfort, distress, or urgent needs.
- People’s communication needs are not consistently met. People are not meaningfully supported to engage in their care, support and treatment.
- People’s privacy and confidentiality is not consistently respected and maintained.
Inadequate
In plain terms: Performance is well below the expected standard; enforcement may follow.
- People are not treated with kindness, compassion, dignity or respect. Staff are unkind or lack compassion. This may be widespread and serious.
- Communication with people is poor, unkind, disrespectful or discriminatory. People may be treated in a patronising way. Staff do not consider people’s individual needs and preferences or deliver care in line with these.
- Staff lack concern for people’s wellbeing. People’s needs are not appropriately responded to, such as signs of distress or discomfort. They are ignored or staff respond negatively.
- The service is task-focused, and staff are not supported or encouraged to provide care and support in a compassionate and supportive way. Some staff show kindness and compassion, but the service does not recognise, value or encourage this.
- Staff do not understand the importance of privacy and confidentiality, so this is not respected or maintained or is purposely disregarded.
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