Regulatory risk in adult social care is moving back up the lender agenda. For a period, reduced inspection activity created some delay between operational weakness and visible regulatory consequences. That position is changing. As CQC activity rebuilds and assessment methodology continues to evolve, issues that may previously have remained below the surface are more likely…
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Workforce pressure has long been one of the defining challenges in adult social care. For operators, it affects rota planning, service continuity, care quality and staff morale. For lenders, it now needs to be viewed as something more direct: a credit risk. Adult social care remains a demand-led sector. The need for care is not…
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The Care Quality Commission is preparing to make a significant change to how care services are assessed. On 24 March 2026, draft proposals were published outlining a move away from the current Single Assessment Framework towards more sector-specific approaches. For care home owners, this is not a minor update. It signals a shift in how…
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When Care Services Need Clarity, Practical Support Matters There are times when a care service needs more than another internal review. It may be preparing for inspection, responding to regulatory pressure, strengthening governance, stabilising leadership or understanding why improvement is not happening quickly enough. In those moments, experienced external support can help bring clarity, structure…
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Adult social care is not facing a demand problem. Underlying need remains strong, driven by demographic pressure, increasing complexity of care and continued local authority demand. CQC’s latest State of Care report notes that new requests for local authority-funded adult social care were 4% higher in 2023/24 than the previous year, and 8% higher than…
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CQC has confirmed the next phase of its local authority assurance assessments, with updated guidance, clearer processes and more defined expectations around how councils will be assessed against their adult social care duties. This is not just a local government issue. Local authority performance shapes the environment in which care providers operate, from commissioning and…
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Last month, the Care Quality Commission published its updated approach to assessing local authorities. The guidance, published on 8 April 2026, explains how CQC will assess whether local authorities are meeting their adult social care duties under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014. While the update is aimed directly at councils, it is also…
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Registered manager gaps remain a significant pressure point in adult social care. Skills for Care’s 2025 workforce report states that, in 2024/25, there were 29,719 CQC-regulated adult social care establishments in England and around 26,400 registered managers in post. The report also identifies a registered manager vacancy rate of 11.4%, equivalent to an average of…
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Fabio Cecchi, Commercial Director at Fulcrum Care, shares the organisation’s response to the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC’s) March update and explains what the proposed move towards sector-specific inspection frameworks could mean for providers. In its March update, CQC provided further detail on how it intends to evolve its regulatory approach following feedback on the single…
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A sector facing sustained cost increases Running a care home has always required balancing high-quality care with financial sustainability. For many providers today, however, that balance is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Across the adult social care sector, operating costs are rising across multiple areas at the same time. Staffing costs continue to increase as…
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