Adult Social Care Briefing

Published: 20 August 2026

A weekly briefing highlighting key developments affecting adult social care providers.

Each edition brings together developments that may influence governance, leadership and operational decision-making across adult social care. Factual information is drawn from official or authoritative sources, with commentary reflecting professional interpretation of the potential implications for providers.

NICE opens consultation on aggressive behaviour in people receiving NHS or social care

What has changed?

On 19 August, NICE opened consultation on its draft updated guideline, Aggressive behaviour in people receiving NHS or social care: prevention and management, alongside a draft quality standard, Aggressive behaviour in people receiving NHS or social care.

The guideline covers the prevention and management of aggressive behaviour in children, young people and adults receiving NHS or social care in any setting. NICE states that it aims to reduce aggressive behaviour and the use of restrictive practices.

The draft quality standard covers preventing and managing aggressive behaviour in children, young people and adults receiving NHS or social care and identifies priority areas for quality improvement.

It will update and replace the existing quality standard on violent and aggressive behaviours in people with mental health problems, published in 2017.

Both consultations close at 5pm on 16 September 2026, with the final guideline and quality standard expected to be published on 28 January 2027.

Why it matters

The explicit inclusion of social care makes this relevant to providers across a range of settings. The draft proposals cover areas including prevention, individual risk management, involvement of people and carers in care planning, restrictive practices, sharing information across care settings, and support and learning following incidents.

For providers supporting people who may experience distress or aggressive behaviour, this is an opportunity to consider how current arrangements compare with the proposed expectations before the final publications are issued.

Importantly, social care organisations are within scope to contribute to the consultation process. Organisations commenting formally need to meet NICE's stakeholder requirements and register for the relevant consultation.

For the draft guideline, NICE also accepts comments from individuals, although it encourages people to submit through a registered stakeholder organisation where possible.

Registration for the guideline consultation does not automatically register an organisation for the quality standard consultation.

Actions for providers

• Identify whether the draft guideline and quality standard are relevant to the people your services support.

• Review the consultation documents and, where appropriate, consider registering as a NICE stakeholder and contributing before 16 September.

• Review governance and oversight of restrictive practices, including recording, proportionality and review.

• Check whether post-incident processes identify learning and changes required to reduce future risk.

• Consider whether staff training is supported by competency assessment, supervision and observation of practice.

Contributing to the consultations

NICE is accepting comments until 5pm on Wednesday 16 September 2026.

Draft guideline: Aggressive behaviour in people receiving NHS or social care: prevention and management View the consultation and response information: NICE draft guideline consultation

Draft quality standard: Aggressive behaviour in people receiving NHS or social care View the consultation and response information: NICE draft quality standard consultation.

CQC: latest local authority assessments highlight system and pathway risks

What has changed?

CQC has published its assessments of Lincolnshire County Council and North Lincolnshire Council against their responsibilities under Part 1 of the Care Act 2014.

Lincolnshire was rated Requires Improvement, while North Lincolnshire was rated Good.

The detail beneath the overall ratings provides useful intelligence.

In Lincolnshire, care provision, integration and continuity, safe pathways, systems and transitions, and governance, management and sustainability were scored 2 out of 4.

CQC reported mixed experiences of accessing adult social care and identified issues around areas including provision, equipment and adaptations, hospital discharge and transitions.

North Lincolnshire achieved scores of 3 in areas including care provision, integration and continuity, partnerships and communities, governance, management and sustainability, and learning, improvement and innovation. However, there were also areas for development. Assessing needs, equity in experience and outcomes, safe pathways, systems and transitions, and safeguarding were each scored 2.

CQC identified areas for improvement including assessment practice, recording, consistency in safeguarding practice and contingency planning.

Why it matters

These are assessments of local authorities rather than registered providers, but they provide useful intelligence about the wider systems in which providers operate.

Delays in assessments and reviews, equipment, transitions, discharge arrangements, market capacity and safeguarding processes can all create additional risks for people receiving care and the providers supporting them.

The findings also reinforce the importance of organisations understanding demand, identifying emerging risks and working effectively across organisational boundaries.

For providers, there is a clear implication around information flowing effectively between providers, commissioners and other system partners.

Actions for providers

• Review transition and discharge arrangements, particularly where responsibility passes between providers, local authorities and health services. Check that roles, escalation routes and contingency arrangements are clear.

• Track external delays affecting people's care, including assessments, reviews, equipment, funding decisions or changes to packages, and ensure resulting risks are documented and escalated.

• Review continuity and contingency arrangements for foreseeable disruption, including changes in people's needs, equipment problems, staffing pressures or interruptions to provision.

• Use provider intelligence proactively with commissioners. Capacity pressures, unmet demand, packages that are difficult to place and emerging quality risks can provide important early warning of wider system pressures.

• Review people's experience across pathways, particularly where several organisations are involved, rather than relying solely on assurance from internal processes.

Leadership Reflection

This week's developments put risk across organisational boundaries firmly on the agenda. CQC's findings show how assessment, provision, equipment, transitions, safeguarding and capacity can affect people's experiences across an entire pathway.

NICE's consultation similarly places emphasis on prevention, individualised risk management, information sharing and learning when incidents occur. For leaders, this creates an important assurance question: Do our governance arrangements give us enough visibility of risks that sit between organisations, as well as those within our own service?

Five Things I’d Be Thinking About This Week

1. NICE consultation

Does the proposed guidance apply to any of our services, and do we have experience or evidence that could usefully contribute to the consultation?

2. Restrictive practice

Can we clearly demonstrate when restrictive practices are being used, why they are necessary and proportionate, and how their use is reviewed?

3. System delays

Are delays in assessments, reviews, equipment, funding or discharge creating additional risks for people we support and can we evidence our escalation?

4. Transitions and contingency planning

When responsibility moves between teams or organisations, is it clear who is doing what and what happens if the planned pathway breaks down?

5. Winter readiness

Are we connected into local winter planning around capacity, discharge, escalation, workforce resilience and infection prevention? (Its time to start thinking about winter).

Sources

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)

• Aggressive behaviour in people receiving NHS or social care: prevention and management — draft guideline consultation

• Aggressive behaviour in people receiving NHS or social care — draft quality standard consultation

Care Quality Commission

• Lincolnshire County Council: local authority assessment

• North Lincolnshire Council: local authority assessment — published 14 August 2026

NHS England

• Winter planning 2026/27 – expectations and assurance — published 17 July 2026

Editorial Note

This briefing covers significant issues reviewed up to 20 August 2026 and has been written specifically with their relevance to care-home leaders in mind.

The NICE consultation opened on 19 August 2026 and explicitly includes social care. The CQC findings relate to local-authority assessments rather than assessments of individual registered providers and are included because of their wider relevance to care-home leaders. The sections headed Why It Matters, Actions for Providers, Leadership Reflection and Five Things I'd Be Thinking About This Week represent professional interpretation of the published information. Every effort has been made to distinguish verified factual information from professional commentary. This briefing should not be regarded as legal or regulatory advice.

Looking Ahead

Future briefings will continue to focus on developments that have a direct and material impact on care-home leaders, including:

• CQC regulation and assessment;

• government adult social care policy;

• workforce and Fair Pay Agreement developments;

• NICE guidance relevant to older people and care homes;

• safeguarding, medicines and clinical governance;

• local-authority commissioning and market developments;

• hospital discharge where there are direct implications for providers; and

• emerging quality and safety issues affecting care homes.

  
  

If there is a regulatory update, guidance document or sector issue you would like featured in a future edition of the Adult Social Care Briefing, I'd be pleased to hear from you.