Bromley Council's Adult Services has been rated as 'Requires Improvement' by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), according to a report published in January 2026 and re-published in May 2026. The CQC's first assurance assessment of the council's adult social care services found that while the findings were broadly consistent with the council's own understanding of its strengths and areas for development, there were concerns regarding the weighting of evidence, scoring inconsistencies, and factual inaccuracies in the published report.

The CQC's 'assurance assessment' process is a new duty introduced in April 2023 to independently review and assess local authority performance in delivering adult social care duties. It evaluates how effectively local authorities fulfil their responsibilities under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014, with lived experience central to the framework. The report does not specify why this process was used instead of a more traditional inspection for this particular assessment, but it is described as the CQC's 'new duty'.

Bromley Council raised specific concerns regarding the weighting of evidence used in the CQC report, scoring inconsistencies, and factual inaccuracies. The council noted that despite 84% of their factual accuracy challenges being upheld, this had no impact on the scoring, and some agreed corrections were not fully incorporated into the final report. The council had requested a review of the assurance process due to these concerns, but the CQC declined the request and republished the original report.

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Councillor Diane Smith, Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Health, stated that the council is committed to progressing 'existing improvement initiatives' and strengthening oversight.

The report was discussed at a Bromley Council Executive meeting on Wednesday, June 24, 2026. The Executive noted the outcome of the assessment and approved the continuation of improvement initiatives. The full details of the meeting can be found in the Public reports pack Wednesday 24 June 2026 19.00 Executive.