What 'I' statements are
At the start of every key question in the CQC draft assessment framework for adult social care (2026), there is a set of statements written in the first person. They describe care from the point of view of the person receiving it. Under the Caring key question, for example, they include: "I am treated with respect and dignity." "I am in control of planning my care and support." "I can live the life I want and do the things that are important to me as independently as possible."
These are not aspirations invented by CQC. They are drawn from research into what people who use care services say matters to them: what good care looks and feels like when you are on the receiving end of it.
An 'I' statement is not an inspection criterion. It is the outcome a care service is designed to produce.
The reason this matters for inspection is that CQC uses people's experiences as one of its primary evidence categories across all five key questions. Inspectors will speak to people who use your service. They will read feedback and complaints. They will ask staff how they approach care. What they are looking for, in all of those conversations, is whether the lived experience of the people in your service matches the 'I' statements that frame the framework.
Where 'I' statements appear across the framework
Every key question in the CQC draft assessment framework for adult social care (2026) opens with a set of 'I' statements. Under Safe, they include statements about feeling protected from harm, being involved in decisions about risk, and knowing what to do when things go wrong. Under Effective, they cover being supported to make decisions and to manage health in a way that makes sense to the individual. Under Caring, they address dignity, independence and involvement in care planning. Under Responsive, they focus on equitable access and care that adapts as needs change. Under Well-Led, they describe a service where people are listened to and their feedback drives improvement.
The 'I' statements are not a separate checklist alongside the KLOEs. They are the purpose the KLOEs are designed to serve. A service that can evidence every KLOE in technical compliance terms but cannot show that the people it supports are actually experiencing the care described in the 'I' statements has a gap between its governance record and its reality.
How CQC gathers 'I' statement evidence
Inspectors gather evidence for 'I' statements in three main ways. The first is direct conversation with people who use the service. Inspectors will speak to residents, tenants or service users during the inspection visit (sometimes with staff present, sometimes without). They are not following a script. They are listening for whether the person feels in control, feels respected, and feels that the care they receive reflects what matters to them.
The second source is feedback: complaints, compliments, family comments, surveys and any formal feedback the service holds. A service with a complaints log that records no complaints at all is not necessarily a service where people are happy. It may be a service where people do not feel confident enough to speak up. Inspectors are aware of this distinction.
The third source is staff conversations and records. When a care worker describes a person they support, do they talk about the person's preferences, their history, what makes them happy? Or do they describe the person's care needs in clinical terms? The way staff talk about the people they support is one of the clearest indicators of whether person-centred care is genuinely embedded in the service. Our post on what CQC inspectors mean by person-centred care explores this in detail.
Regulation 9 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 requires providers to ensure that care and treatment meets the needs and preferences of each person. The 'I' statements in the framework describe what that looks like from the person's own perspective.
How to collect evidence that connects to 'I' statements
Record what people say, verbatim where possible. When a resident, service user or family member says something that reflects a positive experience of care (a comment about feeling listened to, a thank-you that describes what made the difference, a moment where a staff member went beyond what was expected) record it. Date it. Note who said it. This is 'I' statement evidence. It does not need to be gathered in a formal survey. A brief daily note of what a person said about their experience carries real weight.
Ask one open question each week. One of the most practical ways to build a body of 'I' statement evidence is to identify one person each week and ask them a single open question about their experience. What do they enjoy? Is there anything they feel is missing? Is there anything they would like to do that they are not currently doing? Record the answer. Over a year, that builds a substantial record of genuine, dated feedback from the people the service supports.
Capture the human detail in care records. Care records that reflect the person, including their preferences, habits, what makes them feel at ease and what upsets them, are 'I' statement evidence embedded in the service's routine documentation. A care plan that records "likes Radio 4 in the morning and prefers not to be rushed at breakfast" is demonstrating, in its own small way, that this service treats people as individuals with their own lives and preferences. This is the practical expression of dignity as evidence: the difference between a record that describes care and one that reflects the person.
Review feedback patterns rather than individual comments. A single positive comment is evidence of one good interaction. A pattern of consistent themes across multiple people, across multiple months, is evidence of a culture. Look at your feedback across the year. What do people most commonly say about their experience? What themes emerge from complaints and comments? This analysis, documented and dated, is strong Listening to and responding to feedback evidence under the Responsive key question.
Ask staff how they know their approach is working. During team meetings or supervision, ask staff how they know that the people they support feel in control of their care. If the answers are specific (for example, "I know because she told me she prefers her bath in the evening now, and I updated her care plan") that is 'I' statement culture in practice. If the answers are generic ("we're person-centred here") that is a development gap. The conversation itself is valuable. Recording that the question was asked and the responses explored is even more so.
How AlwaysReady supports 'I' statement evidence
Evidence of lived experience is the hardest kind to collect and the most compelling kind to present. It requires a habit of noticing and recording, built into everyday care practice. AlwaysReady gives you the structure to build and store that evidence linked directly to the KLOEs it supports.
Upload feedback and experience records linked to specific KLOEs. Rather than storing feedback in a separate folder or spreadsheet, upload it directly to AlwaysReady and link it to the relevant KLOE. A record of a care home resident's positive comment about feeling listened to links to the Kindness, compassion and dignity KLOE under Caring. A record of a family member's feedback about involvement in care planning links to the Person-centred care KLOE. Over time, this builds a KLOE-organised evidence base that shows inspectors exactly where to find lived experience evidence.
Delegate the weekly open question to senior staff. Using AlwaysReady's task delegation feature, assign the weekly open question to a different senior staff member each week. They ask the question, record the answer, and sign off the task via a link (no login required). The record is timestamped and stored. Over a year, that is fifty-two dated, attributed records of feedback from the people the service supports.
Record patterns in your governance meetings. When you review feedback in a governance meeting, noting themes and discussing what is working and what needs to change, record those observations in AlwaysReady alongside the meeting minutes. This demonstrates the feedback cycle: experience is gathered, it is analysed, and it drives decisions. That is the cycle CQC associates with a Responsive, Well-Led service.
Download AlwaysReady's free Annual Compliance Audit Calendar. The calendar includes a quarterly focus on gathering and reviewing feedback from people who use the service and their families. Building this into a regular cycle means your 'I' statement evidence grows continuously, not in a rush before an inspection arrives. Download it here.
References and regulatory sources
- Care Quality Commission (2026). Draft assessment framework for adult social care. Published 19 March 2026. Available at: cqc.org.uk
- Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, Regulation 9: Person-centred care.