The Care Quality Commission (CQC)
Starting in 2023 The Care Quality Commission became responsible for monitoring , assessing and regulating all Local Council Adult Social Care Services. At the end of each assessment the Local Authority Adult Social Care services receive an over all rating to describe their quality of care as well as a full detailed report of how the assessment went, areas of good practice and future improvement suggestions.
CQC will assess each local authority, this will be done in several ways including meeting with those who use services, meeting with partner organisations, meeting with providers, requesting specific information and data, as well as an in person 2-3 day inspection every 2-3 years (pending CQC's current review of timescales).
Sefton Adult Social Care Assessment January 2025
Sefton Council's first Adult Social Care assessment was completed late January 2025.
Our Report was officially published on Friday 20th June 2025 and we are really proud to share with you that this assessment resulted in Sefton Council Adult Social Care services receiving an overall rating of Good with a score of 70%.
There is a full report and break down available using the report link below, this will take you to CQC's website and provide a comprehensive break down of all the information they gathered, the scores as well as some areas to improve to support us in our journey to becoming an outstanding service.
Congratulations to the Sefton Council Adult teams for all your hard work and dedication, we are so proud!
Sefton Council: local authority assessment - Care Quality Commission
We have created a helpful plain English easy read summary of the assessment report below- it is aimed to make the information simpler, easier to read and more accessible than the full published report.
Sefton Council Adult Social Care CQC Assessment Report Easy Read Final 2025
Next Steps
We are really pleased with our assessment outcome, we are now using that report to drive our continuing improvement journey to achieve an outstanding outcome in the future.
The Care Quality Commission Approach
From September 2023 all local Council Adult Social Care services across the country will be assessed every two- three years by The Care Quality commission (CQC).
Councils will receive an overall rating up to 3 months after their inspection, the ratings can will result in the Adult Social Care services being deemed :
Outstanding
The service is performing exceptionally well - 88 to 100%
Good
The service is performing well and meeting our expectations -63 to 87%
Requires improvement
The service is not performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve -39 to 62%
Inadequate
The service is performing badly and we've taken action against the person or organisation that runs it - 38% or lower.
How do CQC decide the result? What are Councils Scored on?
Councils will be rated based on these areas. Each area gets a score from 1 to 4
1 = Inadequate
2 = Requires improvement
3 = Good
4 = Outstanding.
These scores are used to calculate the over all result.
- Assessing needs
- Supporting healthier lives
- Equity in experiences and outcomes
- Care provision, integration, and continuity
- Partnerships and communities
- Safe systems, pathways, and transitions
- Safeguarding
- Governance, management and sustainability
Assessments will include virtual checks, meetings, data gathering, face to face assessments and visits, with feedback from those who give and receive care.
The CQC Assessment focuses on four quality assurance themes. It looks at how local authorities:
- Work with people: Supporting them to live healthier lives with prevention, wellbeing, information, and advice.
- Provide support: Market shaping, commissioning, workforce equality, integration, and partnerships.
- Ensure safety: Safeguarding, safe systems, and continuity of care.
- Handle leadership and workforce: capable, compassionate leaders, learning, improvement, and innovation.
Find out more on how all local authorities are inspected and assessed by CQC
Documents
| Care Quality Commission Plan Easy Read |  (pdf 721KB) |
| About the CQC Easy Read | (pdf 1.97MB) |
| ASC preparing for CQC inspection | (pdf 137KB) |
| ASC Self Assessment Easy Read | (pdf 4.6MB) |