The Well-led Key Question.Six KLOEs, in plain English.
Under the 2026 CQC framework, the Well-led Key Question asks whether leadership, management and governance make sure the service provides high-quality care, encourages learning, and promotes an open and fair culture — across six Key Lines of Enquiry.
Based on CQC's draft Adult Social Care Assessment Framework, version 9 — in consultation until 12 June 2026.
Leadership, governance and a culture that learns.
Well-led is about how the service is run — its direction, its culture, its leaders, its governance, its partnerships, and its capacity to improve. Six KLOEs, and the one inspectors increasingly open with: a weak Well-led rating tends to drag the others down with it.
For a software platform, KLOE 4 — Governance and management — is the standout: its scope explicitly names cyber security, the DSPT, GDPR, digital records and workforce planning. Your DSPT submission is now CQC inspection evidence.
The six Well-led KLOEs.
KLOE 1Strategic direction
"Is there a clear vision and strategy to support the current and future needs of people and promote a positive culture?"
- Strategy and vision
- Values and culture
- Service sustainability
- Staff feedback
Agency-cost, occupancy and retention dashboards that evidence the operational sustainability of the service; staff-feedback capture. (Service sustainability sits here — there is no separate sustainability KLOE.)
KLOE 2Workforce equity and culture
"Is there an inclusive and compassionate culture that values diversity, supports staff wellbeing and speaking up, and tackles workforce inequalities?"
- Workforce equality, diversity and inclusion
- Workplace discrimination and equitable treatment of staff
- Speaking up culture
- Whistleblowing
- Support and wellbeing of workforce
Workforce demographic analytics; an anonymous speaking-up and whistleblowing channel with case management.
KLOE 3Capable and compassionate leaders
"Do leaders at all levels have the capability and experience to lead effectively and deliver high-quality care, with accountability, integrity and empathy?"
- Leadership competency, support and development
- Safe recruitment of leaders and the Fit and Proper Person Requirement
- Role expectations and personal accountability
A leadership-recruitment and Fit and Proper Person evidence pack; supervision and development records for leaders.
KLOE 4Governance and management
"Are there clear roles, responsibilities and systems of accountability to support good governance and manage risks, performance and issues?"
- Roles, responsibilities and accountability
- Governance, quality assurance and management
- Service risk management
- Cyber security and the DSPT
- Data protection and GDPR
- Statutory and regulatory requirements
- Workforce planning
- Records and digital records
- Emergency preparedness and business continuity
The most software-relevant KLOE in the framework — the immutable audit trail, automatic DSPT evidence, role-based access logs, Regulation 18 notification tracking and workforce planning all live here.
KLOE 5Partnerships and communities
"Is the service working effectively and collaboratively with people who use the service and partners to support care provision and service development?"
- Sharing good practice and learning
- Partnership working and collaboration
- Involvement and coproduction
The family portal and feedback loops as coproduction evidence; records shared with partners.
KLOE 6Improvement, innovation and learning
"Does the service enable and embed continuous improvement, innovation and learning, using evidence and lived experience?"
- Innovation
- Learning and improvement
- Research
The incident-learning loop and improvement trail; anonymised data and opt-in research participation.
Every KLOE across all five Key Questions — with the verbatim inspector question and full scope — is on the all 24 KLOEs reference.
Governance and management — home ground for a platform.
No other KLOE in the framework is as software-shaped. KLOE 4 writes cyber security, the DSPT, GDPR, digital records, workforce planning and business continuity into a single line of enquiry — and FlexiEle is the digital record behind all of it.
The audit trail, the access logs, the DSPT evidence pack — they are not extra work for KLOE 4. They are the by-product of running the service on FlexiEle.
Inside audit & governance- An immutable, time-stamped audit trail
- DSPT evidence auto-generated from live data
- Role-based access control, every access logged
- Regulation 18 statutory notification tracking
- Workforce planning and business-continuity records
- All evidence for KLOE 4, from live data.
See your Well-led evidence, mapped.
Book a 20-minute demo and we'll walk the six Well-led KLOEs against a service like yours — with particular attention to governance and the DSPT. No slides, no pressure.