 We have now completed more than 9,000 assessments, reaching an important milestone ahead of our end of September target.
This reflects progress in increasing our assessment activity and reducing waits for providers. It is an encouraging step as we continue to strengthen our regulatory approach and improve how we carry out our role.
We recognise there is still more work to do. Improving our performance and providing a more consistent, timely and effective service for providers and the public remains a key priority.
As part of our planning for the future, we are modelling assessment activity and demand over the next 18 months. This will help inform future inspection and assessment volumes and support a sustainable approach to regulation.
Alongside this, we continue to improve our digital systems, registration processes and the overall experience of interacting with CQC.
We will continue to share updates as this work progresses. Our focus remains on supporting high-quality care through effective regulation.
 We have published a new report sharing our findings from the Independent Care (Education) and Treatment Reviews (IC(E)TRs) that we carried out between May 2024 and November 2025.
IC(E)TRs are independently chaired reviews of the care, treatment and education (where appropriate) for autistic people and people with a learning disability who are in long-term segregation in mental health hospitals. IC(E)TRs can make a real difference to people’s lives, for example, helping them leave long-term segregation and live in the community.
Since May 2024, we have completed 88 IC(E)TRs. As at 30 March 2026, 40% (35 of 88) of those people left long-term segregation and have been either discharged into their own homes in the community, moved to a more appropriate hospital or are actively engaged in future discharge plans.
The programme was set to end in 2026, but, as a result of the progress to date and the impact for people with a learning disability supported to leave long-term segregation, the Department of Health and Social Care has confirmed additional funding for us to continue the programme until March 2028.
 Earlier this year, we held a series of roadshows with providers, professionals, partners and CQC colleagues to hear their views on the future of regulation. More than 1,800 people joined the conversations, sharing valuable insights on our proposed assessment frameworks.
In this new blog, Stuart Dunn, Director of Mental Health, reflects on the key themes that emerged relating to the mental health sector. Discussions highlighted strong support for a framework focused on outcomes, lived experience, human rights and person-centred care, while also raising important questions about consistency, evidence, ratings and how the framework can be applied fairly across the diversity of mental health services. The blog explores how this feedback is helping to shape and refine the framework and supporting guidance.
You can also read blogs from Professor Bola Owolabi CBE, Chief Inspector of Primary Care and Community Services, and Chris Badger, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care, reflecting on the feedback and themes that emerged from our wider programme of roadshows.
 Earlier this month we published our annual update on the safer management and use of controlled drugs.
The report shares important insight on the use of controlled drugs in health care and adult social care services.
The annual update draws on prescribing data, feedback from controlled drug local intelligence networks, and our wider inspection and regulatory work. The report will help people working with controlled drugs to strengthen the arrangements for their safe management and use
 Excellent care is happening in health and social care services across the country every day. Our new ‘Learning from practice’ case studies capture them, with the first examples focusing on what we’ve seen in GP practices. These are real examples of initiatives to improve people’s care, identified through CQC inspections and through Chief Inspector of Primary Care and Community Services, Bola Owolabi's ‘Learning from excellence’ visits.
The aim is simple: help to spread good practice. If something is working well in one service, there's a good chance it can work somewhere else too.
The first set of published case studies focus on primary and community care, but more case studies are on the way to join the series, including from oral health, hospitals, mental health, and adult social care.
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