What the regulation actually says
Regulation 17 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 is the "good governance" regulation. Paragraph 2(e) requires providers to "seek and act on feedback from relevant persons and other persons on the services provided in the carrying on of the regulated activity, for the purposes of continually evaluating and improving such services." Three things matter in that sentence: you must seek feedback (not just receive it), you must act on it, and the purpose is continuous improvement. A one-off exercise doesn't satisfy a continuous duty.
"Relevant persons" is broad: people who use the service, their families and carers, staff, and other stakeholders. A provider that surveys residents but never asks its care workers is only doing half the job, and staff feedback is separately named in CQC's evidence categories.
What inspectors look for
Under the single assessment framework, inspectors gather evidence against quality statements (the "we" statements), many of which lean directly on feedback: listening to and involving people, kind and compassionate care, and the well-led expectation that leaders foster a culture of "proactively seeking and acting on feedback". The strongest evidence has three parts:
- Rhythm: feedback gathered on a schedule, not once before an inspection window.
- Honesty: anonymous collection, so staff can speak up without fear of reprisal and families without fear of repercussions for their relative.
- Action: a visible line from what people said to what changed, and back to the next survey showing whether it worked.
That third part is where most providers fall down. A folder of survey PDFs proves you asked; a trend line across three survey rounds, annotated with the changes you made, proves you listened.
A feedback rhythm that produces the evidence
A workable year for a care home or community service is roughly one short survey every four months for the people you support, with staff heard twice:
- Three times a year: a short service-experience survey for residents, patients or service users and their families, covering dignity, being listened to and involvement in decisions. (Template: Your Experience of Our Service or, for care homes, Life at Our Home.)
- Twice a year: an anonymous staff wellbeing pulse on energy, the emotional demands of care work and feeling valued. (Template: Staff Wellbeing Pulse.)
- Once a year: a speaking-up and safety culture check on how safe staff feel to report and whether concerns get acted on. (Template: Speaking Up & Safety Culture.)
Anonymity does real work here. Care staff answering a named survey about their manager, or a family rating the home their mother lives in, have every incentive to soften the truth. Collection that is anonymous by design, with small-team results held back below a minimum group size, is what makes the answers worth acting on.
Turning results into Reg 17 evidence
- Date-stamp everything: survey open/close dates, response counts, and when results were reviewed.
- Minute the action: one line per finding, covering what you changed, who owns it and when it's checked.
- Repeat the question: the next round's movement on the same question is your "continually evaluating and improving" evidence.
- Keep the export: a print-ready results report per round, filed where the registered manager can produce it in minutes.
The duty binds the provider, not the tool, and no software makes you compliant. What a good tool does is make the honest version of this cheap enough that it happens all year round.