Frequently asked questions
The questions people ask us most. Tap one to open it.
No. InspectedCare is an independent website. It is not run by, endorsed by, or connected to the Care Quality Commission or the NHS. The official source for any service is cqc.org.uk.
From the Care Quality Commission's own published open data, under the Open Government Licence. We organise it and add the rating and ownership history; we do not change the ratings themselves.
Outstanding means the service performs exceptionally well. Good means it meets expectations. Requires improvement means it is falling short in some areas. Inadequate is the lowest rating and means the CQC has taken or is taking action. There are more details on our ratings page.
Two common reasons. Some services, including most dentists, are inspected but never given a four-point rating. And under the CQC's newer assessment approach, a location that offers more than one type of service can be Not Rated overall while its individual services are rated. Not Rated does not mean a service is bad.
A single rating only tells you about one inspection. The history shows the direction of travel. Two services rated Good today can have very different stories behind them, one improving and one slipping back.
Care services change provider more often than people expect, and standards sometimes change with the owner. We show when a location changed hands and which provider runs it now, so a recent change is easy to spot.
No. The source data includes the names of registered managers and nominated individuals, but we deliberately leave them out. Our pages describe organisations and locations, not individuals.
No. The CQC only regulates England. The other UK nations have their own separate regulators and their own data, which we do not cover.
Ratings show the most recently published inspection, which may not match the service today. The CQC is also moving to a new system, so some updates can be delayed. We always show the inspection date so you can judge how recent it is.
Use the correct a listing page to tell us. Because we mirror CQC data, factual corrections to ratings or registration details ultimately have to come from the CQC, but we will fix anything that is wrong on our side.
Yes, completely free. The site is supported by advertising. We never charge care services to appear, and paying has no effect on a rating or its position.
We list services from public CQC data, which is in the public interest. If you have a specific concern, contact us and we will look into it.