| A map of England, formed from different coloured circles. Some of the circles have pictures of various different health and social care settings within. The words 'State of Care 2023' can be seen on the left-hand side. The CQCsannual assessment of the state of health and adult social care in Englandlooks at the quality of care over the past year. This year has been a turbulent one for health and social care. In addition to the ongoing problem of gridlocked care highlighted in last years State of Care, the cost-of-living crisis is biting harder for the public, staff, and providers and workforce pressures have escalated. This combination risks leading to unfair care where those who can afford to pay for treatment do so and those who cant face longer waits and reduced access. Find out more about State of Care by following the below link. Two healthcare professionals sat at a table, smiling. The picture is greyed out, with an orange and green border, with the words 'the world of health and social care is changing. So are we.' written across the bottom of the picture. From 21 November we will start using our new single assessment framework in our South region. Between 21 November and 4 December we will undertake a small number of planned assessments with 14 early adopter providers, whilst continuing to respond to risk. We will then expand our new assessment approach to all providers based on a risk-informed schedule. We are sharing more information with providers in the south separately and will be in touch with providers in other areas of the country to confirm when we'll start using our new approach with them shortly. NOTE:At this stage our new assessment approach will not apply to services we do not rate or NHS trust well-led assessments. We'll be in contact with those providers with the detail of how we'll roll out our new approach with them. The South region includes services registered in these counties:Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Kent, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Surrey, Sussex and Wiltshire. An elderly man sat on a sofa, his crutches resting against the left armrest and a young carer holding his leg. We've recently published some new provider guidance that describes the evidence we'll use to assess individual quality statements for different types of providers. We want to make sure this guidance gives you the information you need to understand this part of our new approach. To help us understand that we'd like your feedback on the guidance. In the second of our 'CQC is changing' webinar series, you can hear from Amanda Hutchinson, Head of Policy, Regulatory Change and Dave James, Head of Adult Social Care Policy. Amanda and Dave introduce quality statements and evidence categories, and the role they play in our new regulatory approach. We talked through where these two elements fit in the wider new regulatory approach and what guidance is available to help you understand them. Sharing example quality statements to explore how well use evidence categories to identify specific sources of evidence to use in our assessments. During the summer, weve heard from providers that they need more guidance before they feel ready to adopt new ways of working. Were still developing our guidance and well continue to involve providers in that development through Citizenlab, our webinar series, and more. You still have time to contribute to our Citizenlab survey on provider guidance, which will remain open until 1 November 2023. The CQC Medicines Optimisation Team has secured funding to conduct research into howwe can accelerate change to ensure the sustainable use of medicines and decrease the environmental impact of medicines use. Please take part in our short survey and support this research. Even if you are not actively working on this just now, we are keen to hear your views. The survey is open until 30 November 2023. | 