The Care Quality Commission’s single assessment framework was introduced with one clear purpose: to raise care standards across the sector. A goal shared by every provider. Delivering this level of change at scale is complex, and while the ambition is right, the transition has brought challenges such as registration delays, inspection backlogs, and increased documentation demands. These issues reflect the size of the task, not a lack of commitment from the regulator. 

The CQC is actively working to address these challenges following independent reviews, but providers still face operational and financial pressures. Understanding these pressures, and planning for them, can help providers stay focused on what matters most – delivering outstanding care. 

Registration delays remain a challenge

Registration delays continue to impact providers as the new framework beds in. For example, CQC performance data shows 54% of pending registration applications exceeded the 10-week target at the end of 2023–24, up from 22% the previous year. Industry reports suggest applications can take up to six months to process. These delays often mean new care homes sit empty and funding is held back until registration is confirmed, adding pressure for providers and the regulator alike.

While the CQC’s intention is never to stifle care capacity nor quality, these delays highlight the challenge of balancing rigorous standards with the urgent need to bring new services online.

Re-inspection backlogs create prolonged uncertainty

Inspection backlogs add further complexity. According to the Homecare Association, 70.3% of community social care providers either have never been rated or have ratings that are 4–8+ years old, up from 60% in August 2024.

The average wait for re-inspection after a ‘requires improvement’ rating is now 360 days — a 153% increase since 2015. For homecare, uninspected locations rose 64% in 14 months between June 2024 and August 2025 from 2,879 to 4,727. At current inspection rates, the backlog will continue to grow.

These delays have real consequences for providers, but they also affect care seekers and commissioners who depend on current ratings to make confident, informed choices. When ratings are outdated or missing, it can restrict options and make decisions harder. Which is clearly something the CQC is committed to improving through transparency and timely assessments. At the same time, these challenges underline the scale of the task facing the CQC as it works to deliver a more consistent, modern regulatory approach.

Framework complexity reflects ambition

The single assessment framework introduced significant complexity, requiring structured approaches to evidence and documentation. Independent reviews have highlighted these challenges.

Professor Sir Mike Richards’ review stated the framework “is far too complex and, as currently constituted, does not allow for the huge differences in the size, complexity and range of functions of the services that CQC regulates.” Initially, the framework required six evidence types for each quality statement, up to 204 evaluation points, though this was simplified in December 2024.

Even with revisions, compliance remains demanding. This reflects the CQC’s ambition to raise standards and drive best practice across the sector. While the process can feel challenging for providers, the intention is not to penalise or create unnecessary burden, the ultimate goal is to ensure safer, higher-quality care for the people who rely on these services. Providers therefore need systematic ways to organise evidence and maintain audit trails to align with this shared mission.

Understanding the broader impact

While £50,000 is the maximum penalty for compliance failures, the bigger challenge lies in maintaining standards amid reduced inspections and extended delays. Inspections have fallen sharply from around 16,000 in 2019/20 to approximately 6,700 in 2023/24, making progress harder to evidence.

Financial impact goes beyond fines: in the residential care home sector, Knight Frank research shows that inadequate-rated homes operate at profit margins of around 22%, compared with 34% for outstanding-rated homes – a significant disparity that compounds over time. Occupancy rates also drop when ratings remain outdated, as families and commissioners seek higher-rated alternatives.

In a competitive market, this new framework can ultimately have a positive impact by creating more robust standards and building trust among care seekers. It also provides a clearer roadmap for providers needing improvement, helping them demonstrate progress and raise their potential over time. While it may not feel that way pre- or post-audit, the intention is to lift quality across the sector. These pressures highlight why proactive compliance planning is essential, not just for providers’ commercial stability, but to support the shared goal of improving care quality.

Regulatory improvements underway

The CQC acknowledges these challenges and is implementing improvements following reviews by Dr Penny Dash and Professor Sir Mike Richards. These include stabilising its regulatory platform, upgrading the provider portal, and refining processes to make compliance smoother.

Dr Dash emphasised that effective regulation “can identify failings in the delivery of care and assist providers in making improvements,” while Richards recommended a fundamental reset, noting success depends on recruiting and training sufficient inspection staff with sector expertise.

These steps will help, but the single assessment framework, with its 34 quality statements and comprehensive evidence requirements, remains central to compliance. Providers will still need robust systems to organise evidence, track compliance, and maintain audit trails.

How Certa supports providers through regulatory complexity

Certa helps providers turn compliance challenges into manageable processes:

Streamlined evidence preparation: Generate comprehensive inspection-ready reports quickly, reducing stress and saving time.

Real-time compliance monitoring: Track essential checks like DBS, right-to-work, and care plan reviews, with alerts to prevent non-compliance.

Communication logs: Capture compliments, complaints, and key interactions with full audit trails for inspection evidence.

Advanced medication management: Electronic MAR integrated with NHS Medicines API ensures accuracy and visibility, with alerts for missed doses.

Conclusion

Beyond compliance, Certa gives providers a competitive edge. By combining regulatory tools with care planning, scheduling, and family engagement in one platform, Certa helps providers stay compliant, protect revenue, and deliver exceptional experiences that set them apart in a crowded market. Regulatory complexity doesn’t have to be a barrier – with the right systems, providers can focus on what matters most: outstanding care.

Discover how Certa can enhance your regulatory readiness and operational excellence at: www.caci.co.uk/software/certa

The care sector is under immense pressure: staff shortages, rising demand and tighter compliance standards have created a perfect storm for providers. In response, many care management software vendors are racing to add artificial intelligence (AI) features, promising smarter decisions, predictive insights and faster outcomes. 

Is outsourcing thinking to algorithms really the answer though? Or does it risk eroding the very foundation of care – trust, safety, and human connection? 

Why the AI rush in care management software?

AI isn’t just a buzzword. It’s being embedded into care management software in ways that sound transformative: 

• Automatically building care plans by analysing assessments, medical history and wearable data 

• Predicting risks such as falls or hospital readmissions before they happen 

• Optimising rosters by matching carers to clients based on skills, continuity and location 

• Summarising notes and ensuring compliance using natural language processing 

For care providers under pressure to cut admin, stay compliant and deliver person-centred care, these promises are compelling. The narrative is clear: AI will save time, improve outcomes and reduce costs. 

In reality, however, AI in care is still unproven, often opaque and can introduce risks if adopted without clear guardrails. Algorithms are only as good as the data they’re trained on, and in social care, data can be fragmented, inconsistent and context-dependent. When decisions about vulnerable people are delegated to black-box systems, the consequences can be serious: misaligned workflows, compliance gaps and even mistrust among staff and clients. 

The risks of overreliance on AI in care management software 

AI isn’t magic. It’s a set of algorithms trained on data, and in care, that data often comes from fragmented systems, inconsistent records and human interpretation. When decisions about vulnerable people are delegated to unproven tools, the risks multiply: 

Unproven technology

• Many AI features in care software are still in early stages. Without rigorous testing in real-world settings, outputs can be unreliable, workflows misaligned and operational complexity increased. Care plans built by algorithms may look efficient, but do they truly reflect the individual behind the data? 

Compliance gaps 

• Regulators like the Care Quality Commission (CQC) emphasise person-centred documentation, accountability and evidence-based decision-making. If AI decisions can’t be explained or audited, providers could face compliance risks. Person-centred care isn’t just a phrase, it’s a legal and ethical requirement that demands human oversight. 

Staff pushback 

• Care is a human profession. Tools that feel impersonal or difficult to use can create mistrust, lower morale and cause resistance. Technology should empower staff, not alienate them. When carers feel sidelined by algorithms, the essence of care is lost. 

Client experience 

• Person-centred care is the cornerstone of quality ratings and client satisfaction. Poorly implemented AI can create barriers between carers and clients, undermining trust and connection. A truly person-centred approach means listening, adapting and responding in real time, something no algorithm can fully replicate. 

The missing human element

• Care isn’t just about tasks; it’s about empathy, intuition and the ability to respond to subtle cues. Experienced carers bring a rich, dynamic understanding shaped by years of hands-on work – something no dataset can capture. Compassion is a uniquely human trait. AI can process information, but it cannot care. 

Automation: The smarter alternative

Instead of chasing hype, CACI believes in automation with accountability – care management software that streamlines admin, reduces errors and frees staff to focus on what matters most: caring for clients. 

Automation works within parameters set by the provider, ensuring transparency and control. It’s innovation without compromise. 

Efficiency without risk 

• Automated rostering, travel time optimisation and digital care planning reduce admin burden without replacing professional judgment, keeping the person at the centre of every decision.

Compliance built in 

• Automation ensures accurate records, audit trails and SAF-aligned reporting – critical for inspections and quality assurance. Providers stay in control, not algorithms.

Human-centric design

•  By removing repetitive tasks, automation gives carers more time for meaningful interactions with clients. Technology should support the relationship between carer and client, not replace it. Person-centred care needs a person. 

Our approach with Certa 

At CACI, we’ve built Certa, our care management software, around three guiding principles: 

Connecting 

• Bringing people, data and processes together seamlessly. Everyone works from the same trusted source, whether in the office or in the field.

Confirming 

• Compliance, accuracy and transparency are non-negotiable. Certa helps providers evidence quality standards with ease.

Caring 

• Technology should never replace empathy. Certa empowers staff to focus on the human side of care. 

From smart rostering and travel optimisation to digital care planning and real-time reporting, Certa automates the complex while preserving the human touch. 

Where does AI get in? 

AI isn’t the enemy. It has a role, but only when it enhances, not replaces, person-centred care. Predictive analytics, for example, can help identify trends in service demand or flag potential compliance risks. However, these tools must be transparent, tested and always under provider control. 

The safest path is a measured one: 

• Adopt technology that grows with your service 

• Keep compliance front and centre 

• Strengthen relationships between carers and clients 

That’s what Certa delivers. 

The bottom line 

The best care management software combines innovation with empathy. It automates the complex, supports compliance and preserves the human connection that defines quality care. 

AI may be part of the future, but rushing in without a clear strategy can lead to wasted investment, unhappy staff and compromised care. A balanced approach will make all the difference. 

Why Certa makes a difference

Certa is designed for care providers who want technology that works for them. Not the other way around. With features like: 

• Person-centred care planning 

• Advanced rostering and travel optimisation 

• Real-time reporting and SAF-aligned compliance tools 

• Secure-by-design architecture (ISO27001, Cyber Essentials Plus) 

Certa helps you deliver outstanding care while staying efficient, compliant and connected. Get in touch with us today to find out how automation can help your staff focus on what matters most: providing care. 

CACI is delighted to announce that it has partnered with Wonde to deliver safe and secure data sharing between its Impulse education management information system, local authorities and their schools. Being able to access data in such a way is vital in effectively utilising it to understand and improve outcomes for all young people of school age. The integration with Wonde will enable Impulse customers to make the best possible use of their data in an easy, seamless manner without worrying about concerns around data safety. 

“We’re excited to be partnering with Wonde as it will support Impulse customers in sending and receiving vital information on the young people in their services,” says Phil Lucy, director at CACI. “The integration will enable Impulse customers to make the most of the data available to them. For example, this will be particularly useful in our virtual schools module, enabling local authorities to receive near real-time information regarding pupil attendance at school. This then facilitates accurate and prompt action where required.” 

“Wonde are committed to ensuring schools and local authorities can securely access the data they need to support young people effectively,” says Ben Sinclair, Head of Data Sync at Wonde. “Our partnership with CACI strengthens that mission, providing Impulse customers with real-time insights that enable timely interventions and better outcomes for pupils. Together, we’re helping schools and services work more efficiently, with the young person always at the centre.”  

What Impulse customers will benefit from with our Wonde partnership 

• An automated process with real-time updates 
• Remove the need for manual sharing of data between schools and local authorities; no more emails, spreadsheets and phone calls 
• Enhanced data security 

If you’re already an Impulse customer, please speak to your account manager for more information on using Wonde with Impulse. For more information on Impulse, please visit: www.caci.co.uk/software/impulse 

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Wonde is a leading provider of cloud-based school data management solutions, simplifying secure connections between schools and third-party applications.

By automating data transfers and eliminating manual processes, Wonde helps schools embrace technology with ease. Seamlessly integrating with Management Information Systems (MIS), Wonde delivers timely, accurate data while upholding the highest security standards. Trusted by over 30,000 schools across 60 countries, Wonde empowers educators to focus on teaching, ensuring data remains accessible, reliable, and secure. 

You might explore home care software based on a specific pain point or set of needs. But what else are you missing out on? Our blog explores. 

Many home care providers select their home care software based on a specific need. It might be a need to implement a friends and family portal, digitise their services or more efficiently handle financial management. But home care software can carry a multitude of benefits to home care providers. Whilst addressing specific needs is important, taking a step back and considering the while picture can result in tangible benefits being delivered across your care services. This blog will examine the top 7 features you should look for when examining home care software solutions. 

What is home care software? 

To begin with, what is home care software? It’s the software that should support every area of your home care delivery. Where client records were recorded and stored on paper, home care software makes the process digital. This makes your services more agile, with the ability to record information on the go, interact with care workers and their schedules, create friends and family portals for your clients and record and share data easily. 

Why do I need home care software? 

Home care software can deliver a multitude of benefits to your home care services. Perhaps most importantly, however, your clients expect a modern service. Being able to offer outward facing services such as a friends and family portal, updated with real-time information, helps to reassures your clients and their loved ones. 

No less important is the consideration of data security. Our previous blog explored the topic of cyber security for home care providers. In short, keeping the data process safe is important from a GDPR and CQC inspection standpoint.  

Not only does the CQC want evidence that you’re processing and storing data safely in line with its data security and protection toolkit, but the regulator will also need straightforward access to your data to perform inspections. Being able to easily generate accurate and up-to-date reports from your data is something home care software can support. 

What if I don’t need a home care software solution? 

Home care software is an important consideration as your business grows. If you’re only caring for a small number of clients with a small number of care workers to manage, then the outlay might not make sense for your business. 

As your business grows, however, the complexity of your operation will grow with it. With more clients, more carers and more considerations, it becomes increasingly unmanageable where you rely on manual ways of working. Staying on top of finances, client needs, scheduling, reporting and maintaining an outstanding level of care provision can quickly become overwhelming. Home care software can help you by automating swathes of your business, supporting effective communication and the ongoing delivery of outstanding care. 

What you need from a home care software solution 

1. Care planning 

From onboarding clients into your services to being agile in the face of their shifting needs, your home care software solution should support you in creating, revising and delivering person-centred care plans bespoke to the needs of each client. Being adaptable is key. Demands can change in an instant, so your service needs to be responsive. Your carers also need up-to-date information on each client, ensuring they deliver the right care at the right time, 

2. Scheduling your care workers 

Once your care plans are established, you need to schedule care workers to deliver them. Home care management software can remove much of the guesswork in scheduling, helping you to respond instantly to short-term changes. This keeps your services on track, makes the most efficient use of your resources and delivers your care plans in the most effective way. From matching the needs of the client to the skills and experience of the care worker, home care software can support you in delivering continuity of care by ensuring that the right people are in the right place at the right time. 

3. Record information and communicate in real time 

A good home care software solution should provide you with a care worker app. This can be easily downloaded onto the carer’s mobile device and used to complete care visits. As well as equipping your carers with vital context and information on each visit, a care worker app should further support lone worker safety and provide real-time information back to the office. This supports care workers in going about their tasks with confidence, whilst also supporting them in capturing and recording outcomes as they go, removing the need to write up notes and manual data entry. 

4. Complete financial management 

Having confidence that your care worker pay and funder billing are accurate is essential to the financial health of your home care service. By linking to your care plans and care worker schedules, understanding what has been delivered, home care software can support you in maintaining accurate records of who has done what, when. You can further create timesheets for your care workers, making it easy and accurate for them to log care visits and any travel expenses incurred. By automating much of the process, home care software can reduce friction and human error in your financial management. 

5. Create reports on your care services easily 

Being able to easily and accurately report on your home care services provides valuable insights on your business. It’s also important for CQC inspections, not least as the first stage of most inspections will be virtual. A good home care software system should provide your service with bespoke dashboards for each user, enabling them to interact with the information they need. When you need insights, they should be easy to obtain from the data you hold across your care services. 

6. Friends and family portal 

Communicating with your clients and their loved ones is an important and reassuring aspect of modern care delivery. By linking to your care plans and schedules, care software systems can create bespoke, real-time portals through which your clients and their loved ones can see the schedule of their care visits, care due to be administered and care administered.  

7. Support, security and compliance 

It’s important to consider the team behind your home care software solution. What security certificates do they possess? What ongoing support will you receive with the software? What’s the system uptime availability? How will your data be handled? Given the importance of selecting the right home care software solution, it’s imperative to consider the whole package and select a partner that can support the needs of your business. 

How Certa from CACI can support your care service 

Certa from CACI is a complete home care management software solution designed to support every facet of care delivery. Whatever support you need in enhancing the delivery of your care services, Certa can help. 

Delivering tangible benefits to homecare services by making compliance, consent, auditing, reporting and care plan provision straightforward and streamlined, what difference can Certa make to your homecare services? 

You can find out more by booking a no-obligation demo of Certa today. 

Everything you need to know to make the best education MIS decision for your team, your processes and, most importantly, your pupils.

Choosing the best education management information system (MIS) isn’t just about ticking boxes on a features list. It’s about ensuring every child’s journey through education is supported, visible and continuously improving. With the right MIS, schools and trusts can simplify administration, strengthen collaboration and, most importantly, improve outcomes for children.

But how do you find the best education MIS for your specific needs?

Here’s how to choose the best education MIS to deliver long-term value and real impact.

1. Start with your goals: are you focused on outcomes?

The best education MIS isn’t just a back-office tool, it’s a strategic asset. Start by identifying the outcomes you want to achieve:

• Greater transparency for parents and guardians?
• Reduced duplication of effort for your staff?
• More informed decision making for leaders and professionals?

Impulse from CACI is designed with these goals in mind. It’s built to help you deliver better services and outcomes through a collaborative, transparent and child-centred approach.

2. Look for flexibility and scalability

Every school or trust is different. A rigid system will limit your ability to respond to changing demands. Instead, choose an education MIS that grows with you.

Impulse’s modular design means you only use what you need, from core pupil data to specialist support services, early years, EHCPs and more. You can scale up or down as your needs evolve.

3. Make sure it supports collaboration

Education is a team effort. The best education MIS should enable collaboration between schools, professionals and families with secure, structured access to the information each stakeholder needs.

With Impulse, a child’s record is accessible through tailored portals. Schools can update information, professionals can contribute assessments and parents/guardians can view relevant progress. This transparency ensures aligned support at every stage.

4. Prioritise automation and efficiency

Too many schools waste valuable time on repetitive admin. An effective MIS should automate low-value tasks, reduce duplication and streamline processes.

Impulse automates workflows and provides a centralised, shareable child record, freeing your team to focus on adding value, not manual data entry.

5. Think holistic: can you see the full picture?

Siloed data leads to blind spots. Choose a system that integrates all aspects of a child’s educational journey into a single view. This helps you and your team to understand the context of every child.

Impulse joins the dots across 17 integrated modules including SEND, Child Protection, Educational Psychology and more. Impulse helps you to identify risks earlier and deliver more coordinated, inclusive support.

6. Don’t forget support and partnership

Technology is only part of the equation. You need a partner who understands your challenges and works with you to get the most from your MIS.

Impulse from CACI is more than a product. It’s a collaborative approach. We work alongside your team to co-design your MIS usage, train your staff and ensure long term success.

The bottom line: choose a system that works with you

When evaluating MIS options, ask yourself:

• Does it empower my staff and reduce their admin burden?
• Does it support collaboration across my school, trust or local authority?
• Will it scale with our needs as we grow or change?
• Will it help us achieve better outcomes for children?

If the answer isn’t a confident “yes” to all of these – keep looking.

Or better yet, explore how Impulse from CACI can help transform how you deliver education services, meet your strategic goals and, most importantly, support every child.

Read the Impulse brochure to learn more about our approach, our modules and how we’re already helping schools and trusts deliver smarter, more efficient education support.

If you’re facing tightening budgets and an increased demand for efficiency, understanding the specifics of how your care service runs is essential. If you’re facing the scrutiny of a CQC inspection, understanding and being able to portray how your care service runs is also essential. Modern systems play a fundamental role in supporting care services to achieve these aims. From acting as a central database to helping software users collate and interrogate the data they need, having the right care management software in place can make reporting and your CQC inspection that much easier.

Displaying accurate data depends upon accurate data capture. By giving prominence to data within your care service, you can help to ensure its smooth transition from the point of recording through to displaying it in reporting dashboards across your organisation.

Your data, displayed your way

Being able to easily access, examine and report on the data produced across your services is important in understanding care delivery, what’s working and what can be improved. This covers point of care delivery through to financial management.

It is, therefore, important to provide each user with easy access to the data they need. Your care management software provider should be able to help you here. Certa, for example, is provided with a suite of out of the box reporting and dashboards. These cover the areas of your operation that you need, with the ability for you to self-serve and create your own reports and dashboards. Of course, our team is on hand to assist you when you need.

If that sounds daunting, system training is readily available to those who need it and is covered at the point of implementation.

This gives you the freedom to interrogate your data your way, not just work with a one size fits all solution.

Understand your care services

With robust and bespoke reporting mechanisms in place, you can truly get under the bonnet of your care services. What is working well? What could be improved? Where can efficiencies be found?

Only with the right software supporting you can you answer those questions.

Okay, so what do I need to be looking at?

To get you started, Certa provides the following reporting tools upon implementation, although you can set up bespoke reports or fall back on our team to help you:

• Operational management: Future staff usage, unplanned visit analysis, missed visits, real-time care worker analysis, my tasks (what the user has to complete) and staff compliance (e.g. key accreditations and where they might be expiring).
• Client management: A full overview of each client’s timeline, covering previous and planned visits, actions taken and billing.
• Financial management: Full timesheet reporting with an audit trail of authorisations for timely and accurate billing and pay.
• System administration: A complete audit of system users and admin trails.
• Senior management: Profitability reporting and business insights.
• Client portal: Planned and delivered care with the ability for clients, their friends and family and to see what has happened and what is planned for future visits.

How does this help with CQC inspections?

The CQC, at the point of inspection of your services, will ask five key questions in line with its single assessment framework (SAF). Is you service safe? Effective? Caring? Responsive to people’s needs? Well led?

Whilst parts of the assessment comprise speaking with your staff, opening up your service to inspectors greatly assists in transparently laying out how you work. From here, you can evidence that visits are being conducted by trained, compliant staff in a timely manner, that you consider and respond to the needs of your clients and that you provide the best possible environment in which your carers can succeed in delivering services.

This demonstrates that you’re safe, effective, responsive and well led. To help you with this, we’ve put together a comprehensive CQC inspection checklist, which you can get for free here.

Conclusion

With the aim of your service doubtless being outstanding care delivery to your clients, being able to easily monitor this constantly helps to keep your services on track all the time.

Making reporting and analysis part of your business process makes your services constantly transparent. This makes it easier to identify patterns in your business, understanding what’s working well and what could be improved.

It further helps in demonstrating the quality of your services to prospective clients. CQC inspections are irregular and imperfect as a means of showcasing suitability to clients, so being able to put an arm around their shoulder with aspects such as a friends and family portal makes your services transparent to your clients, too.

You have all the necessary information on your services already, but it’s making it easily accessible and transparent that’s often the difficult part. Certa aims to make this straightforward, putting reporting and insight front and centre of your care management software.

Check out our CQC checklist for a comprehensive guide to preparing for inspections, and head to www.caci.co.uk/certa for more information on Certa.

The new CQC inspection framework poses five key questions of care services. Our checklist is designed to help you be prepared

CQC inspections are a challenging and stressful time for any care service provider. There is always an element of the unknown. However, if you have everything in place it can make the process as smooth as possible and alleviate much of the stress and uncertainty.

We’ve created a free checklist that you can use to help prepare for your CQC inspections. To start, we wanted to look at the CQC inspection framework and how often are CQC inspections. 

How often are CQC inspections? 

How often CQC inspections are conducted on care services depends on when the care service was registered and the results of any previous inspections carried out. 

For newly registered care services, they will be inspected within the first 12 months of opening. 

If a care service achieves a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ result, then they will be inspected again within the next five years. From CQC data available from August 2023, c.5% of adult social care services in England were rated as outstanding, or roughly 1200 services. Achieving such a result within the CQC’s new inspection framework satisfies them that a service is meeting or exceeding the minimum expectations of recipients of care. 

Where a result falls below this and achieves a CQC inspection result of ‘requires improvement’, the CQC will inspect that service again within the next 12 months, until such a time that the CQC has determined that the service has improved.  

Falling below that and achieving a result of ‘inadequate’ according to the CQC’s inspection framework means that a care service will be inspected within six months. Improvement in such services is considered urgent, so inspections are more frequent to ensure that the necessary improvements happen. 

The CQC’s new inspection framework 

The CQC’s new inspection framework is its single assessment framework (SAF). This CQC inspection framework asks five key questions of every service it inspects. The CQC asks if services are: 

• Safe 
• Effective 
• Caring 
• Responsive to people’s needs 
• Well led 

By obtaining responses to these five key questions, the CQC’s new inspection framework gains deeper understanding of each care service. The CQC answers these questions by visiting the care service, speaking with employees and clients and going through care records, any complaints and feedback. 

How often are CQC inspections and how can you ace them? 

You want the answer to be ‘every five years’. Obviously, you want to be inspected as infrequently as possible. This is the surest sign that your care services are on the right path.  

To help you in achieving this, we’ve put together a checklist that helps you to prepare for inspections inline with the CQC’s inspection framework.  

The checklist takes you through each question in the single assessment framework (SAF), helping you to prepare documents, responses and ensure that staff are briefed prior to a CQC inspection. 

Why not take a look? The checklist is free to download and you get your copy here. 

School exclusions have been in the news again recently, with the BBC saying that they’ve doubled in the past decade. Fixed term exclusions, or suspensions, are twice as high as they were 10 years ago and permanent exclusions have shot up by 70%.

Scratching beneath the surface of the numbers, 90% of those permanently excluded have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). The numbers in the BBC’s report focus on primary schools, but this is a trend that we have discussed previously across the entirety of the education system. 

What was clear then, too, was the disadvantaging of the disadvantaged. Children from deprived areas are far more likely to face some form of exclusion than their peers. This is evidenced by the likelihood of children eligible for free school meals facing exclusion. 67% of pupils with an exclusion or suspension at primary school had also been on free school meals, according to research by the children’s charity ChanceUK. 

ChanceUK further finds that 90% of children excluded at primary school fail their English and Maths GCSEs. There is a lasting impact to exclusion, be it permanent or fixed, that an increasing number of children and their families are facing up to. 

How can school exclusions be reduced? 

The recurring link between disadvantage and SEND to school exclusions tells its own story. The longer children go with unmet needs, the longer their behaviour is going to be punished in school settings. Rather than understanding and interpreting a child’s behaviour, it can be easier for schools to exclude them.

This, on the face of it, is justifiable, too. If a child is persistently disrupting lessons and impacting the education of their classmates, then the school has to act. 

Identifying unmet needs earlier is essential. As we found out with Milton Keynes last year, 88% of children in contact with youth offending teams in the locality were found to have unidentified speech, language and communication needs (SLCN).

“Communication and the understanding that comes from this is key to thinking, processing, anticipating and understanding consequences” they told us. “If we carried on as if children automatically have these skills, when it was clear they don’t, this was a recipe for failure carrying consequences for these children and for the rest of society.” 

Joining the dots between education and circumstance is essential. It’s imperative that understanding is built between schools and those pupils deemed disruptive. The likelihood of them falling into criminality rises exponentially once they are excluded, as evidenced by 88% of children in contact with youth justice services in Milton Keynes having SLCN. 

Where context and understanding are built into the system around children, it makes it easier to identify those children most at risk of having SLCN and SEND. From there, preventative steps can be taken. 

Can technology support a reduction in school exclusions? 

The role of technology systems will be fundamental in reducing the number of school exclusions. More prosaic aspects such as the school admissions process can help to ensure that children are attending the right school.

This extends to the right school in terms of locality to their home, increasing the likelihood of attendance. From there, any needs can be considered in a central system when assigning children to school places. 

Where SEND is suspected, it’s important that referrals are made and assessments conducted as soon as possible. This will then lead into other aspects of the child’s journey such as education health and care plans (EHCPs). It is vital that all information is easily recorded and easily accessed by relevant parties involved in the child’s journey. 

Making data easily accessible is an important point. Linking education to circumstances drives understanding. Creating a hub through which parents, schools and professionals can log and access information on a child makes navigating their journey more straightforward. It also builds rich data insights, further enhancing knowledge and understanding of processes that work in combatting aspects such as school exclusions. 

Find out how Impulse can help 

CACI’s education management system, Impulse, provides education services and local authorities with the information they need to understand each child’s journey. With specialist SEND, EHCP, admissions and social inclusion modules, it supports the parts of the process you need supporting. 

At CACI, we also support more than 70% of youth justice services in the UK. This builds a clear link between education and youth justice, something that is prevalent in the case of school inclusions. Our work helps to support children and their families in that context. It also helps schools to prevent them from ever getting there. 

For more information, contact us now.