Listening to and responding to feedback
Are people supported to give feedback and raise concerns, and are they confident that action will be taken as a result?
In brief
Listening to and responding to feedback is key line of enquiry 2 under the Responsive key question in the Care Quality Commission (CQC) draft adult social care assessment framework (v9, 19 March 2026), currently published for consultation. It covers feedback and complaints, access to advocacy and support to raise concerns, unpaid carer support. 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
- Responsive
- Line of enquiry
- KLOE 2 of 4 under Responsive
- 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. 44–45 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:
- Feedback and complaints
- Access to advocacy and support to raise concerns
- Unpaid carer support
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.
- The service demonstrates exemplary practice in handling feedback and complaints. Processes are clear, person-centred and transparent and prioritise empathy, timely communication and a commitment to learning and improvement.
- Rigorous and constructive challenge from people who use services, the public and stakeholders is actively encouraged and seen as a vital way of holding the service to account.
- The service actively seeks feedback to make continuous improvements, based on what is important to people. This is acted on and embedded in daily practice. People have a positive experience of the process and can see the impact of their feedback.
- The service maximises its use of qualitative and quantitative information to meaningfully improve the service and the quality of care.
- People and those close to them are involved in regular reviews of how the service manages and responds to complaints. The service can demonstrate where it has made improvements as a result of learning from reviews.
- Investigations are comprehensive and the service uses innovative ways of looking into concerns. Where appropriate, external people and professionals are included in investigations to make sure there is an independent and objective approach.
Good
In plain terms: The service meets the expected standard.
- People and those close to them understand how to give feedback, make suggestions or complain about care, support and treatment. They can do this in a way that meets their needs.
- The service supports people to give their feedback, share ideas or make a complaint. This includes supporting access to independent advocacy.
- People feel confident that their views or concerns will be taken seriously and they will be treated compassionately, without negative repercussions.
- People feel confident the service will take appropriate action if they raise a concern or complaint. This includes thoroughly investigating the issue, communicating what is happening, being open about what has been found and what the outcome is, where this is appropriate and permissible.
- The service involves and works collaboratively with each person to develop solutions to the concerns they raise and to assess the impact of the changes implemented.
- The staff and service welcome feedback, concerns or complaints as an opportunity to improve the service and the quality of care people receive. Learning from feedback, concerns or complaints is incorporated into practice.
- The service keeps people informed about how their feedback has been addressed and any action taken including a full explanation when it has not been acted on. It does this in line with established processes, and people are given information on how to escalate their complaints to the relevant Ombudsman at the end of its complaints process
Requires improvement
In plain terms: The service is not yet Good and has areas that must improve.
- People do not find it easy to give feedback, share their ideas or complain about their care, support or treatment from the service. The service does not make sure that everyone can do this in a way that meets their individual needs.
- People are not consistently supported when they raise concerns or make a complaint. Opportunities to work with advocates are routinely missed.
- People do not consistently feel their views or concerns are taken seriously or that they are treated with compassion.
- People have sometimes suffered discrimination, detriment or harassment after complaining.
- When people raise complaints or concerns, the service does not act consistently and take their views fully on board, investigate them thoroughly and in a timely way, or change practice to improve.
- The complaints system is inconsistently managed and there is little evidence of the learning applied to practice within the service. The service does not provide information on how to escalate their complaints to other complaint resolution bodies.
Inadequate
In plain terms: Performance is well below the expected standard; enforcement may follow.
- People are not invited to express their views or raise concerns about their care and support. Processes for raising complaints and concerns are not accessible.
- Staff are unaware of or dismissive of what people think about their care and support.
- People feel unsupported or discouraged from raising concerns or making a complaint. The service does not recognise or value the role of advocacy in supporting people to raise concerns. It routinely refuses to engage with advocacy services or engage in a defensive and obstructive way.
- There is a track record of people suffering discrimination, detriment or harassment if they complain.
- Complaints are not dealt with in an open, timely and objective way, or not dealt with at all. The service’s response to complaints suggests a defensive attitude.
Reading these against your own evidence is where most providers get stuck. We can walk it through with you.