Warden × CQC: what each module helps you evidence
CQC asks five key questions of every service: is it safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led? Here is how each Warden module can help you evidence them, and which regulations it relates to in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014.
Where CQC's assessment framework stands
CQC's assessment framework is built on the 5 key questions. Under them, the current single assessment framework sets out 34 quality statements.
CQC has also published a draft assessment framework for adult social care, one of 4 draft sector-specific frameworks. In the draft, key lines of enquiry would replace the quality statements, and the 5 key questions stay. CQC is piloting the draft approach between June and October 2026, with a final evaluation planned for November 2026.
Because the 5 key questions are the same in both, this page maps to them, and names the current quality statements where that helps.
Draft status checked on cqc.org.uk on 6 October 2026.
Module by module
Notices and policies: read-and-sign
Each policy or notice goes to the staff who must read it, with a deadline. Warden records when each person opened it and their typed signature against that exact version, with timestamps. A notice can carry a short comprehension check that staff must pass before they can sign. When a policy changes, staff see what changed and sign the new version; earlier signatures are kept as history.
Regulations: Regulation 17, Good governance: systems and processes that are operated effectively, and the records a provider keeps about the management of the regulated activity (regulation 17(2)(d)(ii)).
Current quality statements: Governance, management and sustainability (Well-led); Learning culture (Safe), where a policy changes after something has gone wrong.
Training matrix
Every staff member against every mandatory course, with each record in date, expiring or overdue, a compliance score for the home, and alerts before training expires.
Regulations: Regulation 18, Staffing: staff receive the "appropriate support, training, professional development, supervision and appraisal" they need for their duties (regulation 18(2)(a)). Regulation 17, Good governance: records about persons employed (regulation 17(2)(d)(i)).
Current quality statement: Safe and effective staffing (Safe).
Safer recruitment checks
For each staff member: enhanced DBS, right to work, two references, induction and the Care Certificate, with issue and expiry dates, documents attached, and alerts before a renewal is due.
Regulations: Regulation 19, Fit and proper persons employed: recruitment procedures that are operated effectively (regulation 19(2)), and the information in Schedule 3 available for each person employed (regulation 19(3)). Schedule 3 includes criminal record certificates and satisfactory evidence of conduct in previous employment. Warden covers part of Schedule 3, not all of it: for example, it does not hold a full employment history.
Current quality statement: Safe and effective staffing (Safe), which covers safe recruitment, including DBS.
DoLS register
Each Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards authorisation by resident, standard or urgent, with its dates and alerts before it expires.
Regulations: Regulation 13, Safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment: a person must not be deprived of their liberty for the purpose of receiving care or treatment without lawful authority (regulation 13(5)). Regulation 11, Need for consent: where a person aged 16 or over lacks capacity to consent, the provider must act in accordance with the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (regulation 11(3)). The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are in Schedule A1 to that Act.
Current quality statements: Safeguarding (Safe), which refers to DoLS; Consent to care and treatment (Effective).
This maps the register to the regulations only. It is not guidance on when a deprivation of liberty arises: confirm current DoLS requirements with your local authority and legal advisers.
Supervisions and appraisals
One-to-one supervisions and appraisals: how often each is due, who is overdue, and a record that the staff member signs.
Regulations: Regulation 18, Staffing: staff receive appropriate support, supervision and appraisal (regulation 18(2)(a)).
Current quality statements: Safe and effective staffing (Safe), which includes supervision and appraisal; Workforce wellbeing and enablement (Caring); Governance, management and sustainability (Well-led).
The evidence pack
One download for the home, as PDF or Word: training compliance and the matrix, policy sign-offs, the DoLS register, safer recruitment and supervisions.
Regulations: Regulation 17, Good governance: the records a provider keeps about persons employed and about the management of the regulated activity (regulation 17(2)(d)).
Current quality statement: Governance, management and sustainability (Well-led).
By key question
- Safe
- The training matrix, safer recruitment checks and supervisions (Safe and effective staffing); the DoLS register (Safeguarding); policy sign-off when a policy changes (Learning culture).
- Effective
- The DoLS register (Consent to care and treatment).
- Caring
- Supervisions and appraisals (Workforce wellbeing and enablement). Most evidence for Caring comes from people's experience of their care, which Warden does not record.
- Responsive
- Warden does not record the evidence CQC looks at here, such as person-centred care, providing information, and listening to and involving people.
- Well-led
- Policy sign-off records, supervision records and the evidence pack (Governance, management and sustainability).
The regulations, as titled in law
- Regulation 11: Need for consent
- Regulation 13: Safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment
- Regulation 17: Good governance
- Regulation 18: Staffing
- Regulation 19: Fit and proper persons employed
- Schedule 3: Information Required in Respect of Persons Employed or Appointed for the Purposes of a Regulated Activity
- Mental Capacity Act 2005, Schedule A1: Hospital and care home residents: deprivation of liberty
Keep the records as you work
Read-and-sign, the training matrix, safer recruitment, the DoLS register and supervisions, in one system and one evidence pack.
Book a single-home pilot →This page is not legal advice. Warden is independent of the Care Quality Commission: it is not affiliated with or endorsed by CQC. Warden helps you keep and produce records; it does not decide whether a service meets the regulations, and it does not replace the registered manager's own judgement.
Sources
All checked on 6 October 2026.
- The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, legislation.gov.uk: contents, regulations 11, 13, 17, 18 and 19, and Schedule 3.
- Mental Capacity Act 2005, legislation.gov.uk: contents, including Schedule A1.
- Assessment framework, cqc.org.uk: the 5 key questions and the quality statements under each, including Safe and effective staffing, Safeguarding, Learning culture, Consent to care and treatment, Workforce wellbeing and enablement and Governance, management and sustainability.
- Purpose of CQC's assessment frameworks, cqc.org.uk: the 4 draft sector-specific frameworks and key lines of enquiry.
- Give your views on draft sector-specific assessment frameworks, cqc.org.uk: the draft adult social care framework.
- Piloting, testing and evaluation of new assessment method (4 June 2026) and Rebuilding our regulatory approach and digital services (27 August 2026), cqc.org.uk.