The template #
One table per service. Replace the starter rows with what you actually hold, add your own, and fill in the dates: the two date columns are what turn a list of documents into something you can check at a glance. It follows CQC’s published evidence categories and is a working aid, not a substitute for CQC’s guidance.
Click anything in brackets to type over it, then copy, print or download the result. Nothing you type leaves this page.
CQC evidence table
| Service | [Name and location] |
|---|---|
| Service type | [For example homecare, care home, supported living] |
| Registered manager | [Name] |
| Table last reviewed | [Date] |
| Reviewed by | [Name] |
1. People’s experience of health and care services
| Evidence | Key question | Where it is kept | Latest dated | Next due | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Survey results from people who use the service, and from families and carers | |||||
| Compliments, concerns and feedback received by the service | |||||
| Feedback gathered by community and voluntary groups or the local authority | |||||
| [Your own evidence] |
2. Feedback from staff and leaders
| Evidence | Key question | Where it is kept | Latest dated | Next due | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff survey results and other feedback from staff | |||||
| Notes of team meetings, supervisions or focus groups where staff gave views | |||||
| Whistleblowing concerns raised, and what was done about them | |||||
| [Your own evidence] |
3. Feedback from partners
| Evidence | Key question | Where it is kept | Latest dated | Next due | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commissioner contract monitoring reports and feedback | |||||
| Feedback from other local providers and professionals the service works with | |||||
| Reports from accreditation bodies or professional regulators | |||||
| [Your own evidence] |
4. Observation
| Evidence | Key question | Where it is kept | Latest dated | Next due | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reports of any observation of care or the care environment by an external body, such as Local Healthwatch | |||||
| [Your own evidence] |
5. Processes
| Evidence | Key question | Where it is kept | Latest dated | Next due | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Results of the service’s own audits, with the actions that followed | |||||
| Findings and learning from safety incidents | |||||
| Reviews of care records or case notes | |||||
| Waiting or access times, where the service measures them | |||||
| [Your own evidence] |
6. Outcomes
| Evidence | Key question | Where it is kept | Latest dated | Next due | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Emergency admissions and readmissions to hospital | |||||
| Infection control rates | |||||
| Vaccination and prescribing data | |||||
| [Your own evidence] |
Gaps and actions
| What is missing or out of date | What will be done | Who | By when | Done |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| [Gap] | [Action] | [Name] | [Date] | |
| [Gap] | [Action] | [Name] | [Date] | |
| [Gap] | [Action] | [Name] | [Date] |
What goes in a CQC evidence folder #
Evidence in each of the six categories CQC uses, which its evidence categories guidance sets out with examples. For a care service most of it is evidence you already produce; the work is knowing where it is.
| Category | What CQC counts in it | Who mostly produces it |
|---|---|---|
| People’s experience | Surveys, interviews, feedback gathered by providers, voluntary groups and local authorities | You, and people who use the service |
| Staff and leaders | Staff surveys and feedback, interviews and focus groups, whistleblowing | You, and CQC at interview |
| Partners | Feedback from commissioners, other providers, regulators and accreditation bodies | Other organisations |
| Observation | Observation of care and the care environment | CQC on site, and bodies such as Local Healthwatch |
| Processes | Audit results, learning from safety incidents, access times, case note reviews | You |
| Outcomes | The effect of care on people, such as admissions, infection rates, vaccination and prescribing data | National data, and your own records |
Not every category applies to every service. CQC says the number it considers varies with the type of service and the level of assessment, and its lists for each sector group are, in its own words, “a guide, not a checklist”.
Why the table files by category, not by quality statement #
CQC’s current framework, in its guidance last updated 2 July 2026, keeps the five key questions and assesses services against quality statements. Its response to the Better regulation, better care consultation, last updated 25 March 2026, says that is changing: sector-specific frameworks, supporting key lines of enquiry in place of quality statements, no scoring, and ratings made directly at key question level.
The categories behind each key question are covered in more depth in CQC’s six evidence categories, and what each asks a care service to keep.
What Regulation 17 asks of the records behind it #
Regulation 17, good governance, is the rule an evidence table serves. It requires systems that assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service, and records kept securely: an accurate, complete and contemporaneous record for each person using the service, records about the people employed, and records about how the service is managed.
It also sets a clock. When CQC asks, a provider must send a written report on how it assesses, monitors and improves quality and safety, with its improvement plans, no later than 28 days beginning on the day after the request arrives. CQC says it can move straight to prosecution if that report is not sent. A table that already says where everything is kept is most of that report’s groundwork.
How to keep it current #
-
Fill in the dates first
The Latest dated and Next due columns are what show a gap. A row with a document but no date tells you nothing at a glance.
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Point to the record, do not copy it
Where it is kept should be a location someone else can follow: a folder, a system, a shelf. Duplicating records into the table makes two versions to keep in step.
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Give every gap an owner
A missing survey with no name against it will still be missing at the next review.
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Review it on a fixed day
Monthly suits most services. Keep each reviewed copy, because a run of them is itself evidence of the monitoring Regulation 17 asks for.
What keeping this up by hand costs #
Most of the work in an evidence table is noticing: that a survey is a year old, that an audit action has no completion date, that a supervision record is missing for one member of staff. Each of those is a date compared with a rule, or something absent that should be present. Deciding what the evidence says about the care, and what to change, is the registered manager’s judgement, and nothing on this page touches that.
The same pattern runs through medication records, where gaps on a chart are the most visible failure in a service. To see which jobs in your own office run on rules, try the task sorter, or count the hours with the cost of admin time calculator.