The guidance on the assessment of centres reflects our commitment to a more human rights-based approach to regulation, together with evidence-based changes since it was first published. It gives greater detail to inspectors on the making of judgments about compliance.

It includes guidance on all regulations that we assess compliance against and on the National Standards for infection prevention and control in community services (2018), and has also been produced to support the two related assessment-judgment frameworks.

The purpose of this guidance is to provide additional supporting information on assessing compliance and to offer guidance on reviewing each regulation and applicable standards. It is also intended to be used by providers and their staff to assess their own services and continually improve the quality and safety of care and support delivered to residents.

This guidance should be read in conjunction with the associated assessment-judgment frameworks.

The purpose of the assessment-judgment frameworks is to support inspectors in gathering evidence when monitoring or assessing a designated centre and to make judgments on compliance. The frameworks set out the lines of enquiry to be explored (questions to be asked) by inspectors in order to assess compliance with the regulations and or standards being monitored or assessed.

It also outlines the compliance descriptors of:

• Compliant: a judgment of compliant means the provider and or the person in charge is in full compliance with the relevant regulation.
• Substantially compliant: a judgment of substantially compliant means that the provider or person in charge has generally met the requirements of the regulation but some action is required to be fully compliant. This finding will have a risk rating of yellow, which is low risk.
• Not compliant: a judgment of not compliant means the provider or person in charge has not complied with a regulation and that considerable action is required to come into compliance. Further details are contained in the framework.