CQC Ratings for Care Homes: What Outstanding to Inadequate Means and How to Read a Report
What the four CQC ratings mean, how the percentage scores map to them, how the 14,783 care homes we list are spread across the grades, the five questions behind each rating and how to read an inspection report. Definitions checked against the CQC on 12 November 2026.
Updated
The Care Quality Commission puts every care home in England into one of four ratings. The grade is a good place to start, and the report behind it is where the useful detail sits.
| Is Good good enough? | The CQC says Good means the service is performing well and meeting its expectations. More than seven in ten homes we list carry it, so it separates few homes from one another. The five questions under the grade do more of the sorting. |
|---|---|
| How fresh is a rating? | Every rating belongs to a dated report. A home can improve or slip after that date, and the CQC may follow up with a focused inspection. Read the date before you read the grade. |
| Why does a home have none? | The CQC gives several reasons: some services have registered but not been assessed yet, and some old reports came before ratings existed. In our lists 1,222 homes show no rating. |
Decode a grade or a percentage score
Choose a rating, or type the percentage score if the report shows one. Newer CQC reports give a score as well as a grade.
How the 14,783 homes we list are rated
Overall CQC rating of every care home in the register data loaded on MyCareCheck on 2 November 2026. We show all of them, including the weakest.
Each list is on the site: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement and Inadequate. Percentages are of all homes and are rounded.
The five questions under every grade
The CQC asks the same five questions of every service and rates each one. A home can be Good overall and still weaker on one of them.
| Question | What the CQC means by it | Where you can look yourself |
|---|---|---|
| Safe | People are kept safe from abuse and from harm that could have been prevented. | How medicines are handled, how quickly a call bell is answered, whether the building is clean and uncluttered. |
| Effective | Care and support lead to good results, protect quality of life and follow the best evidence. | How care plans are reviewed, which GP or nurse team visits, and what happens after a fall or a hospital stay. |
| Caring | Staff treat residents kindly and with dignity, and involve them in decisions. | Whether staff knock before they enter a room, use residents' names and have time to talk. |
| Responsive | The way the home runs is built around what each person needs. | How flexible waking times, meals, activities and visiting are, and how requests are handled. |
| Well-led | Leaders and managers deliver care shaped around individuals, learn from experience and keep an open, fair culture. | How long the manager has been in post, how complaints are logged and what changed because of the last one. |
Reading a CQC report in ten minutes
- Find the inspection date.Then check on the CQC page for the home whether a later report or a focused inspection has been published.
- Read the grade for each of the five questions.Reports set out what the CQC found on each one, so you can see where the strengths and the worries sit.
- Look for breaches of regulations.The CQC states them clearly in the report along with recommendations. The provider must answer with an action plan, so ask the manager to show you theirs.
- Note who the evidence came from.For care homes the CQC draws on data, information gathered before the visit, conversations with residents, families, carers and staff, and its own inspection. Quotes from relatives tell you more than a summary line.
- Match the findings to the person.A home that handles dementia well may not suit someone who needs nursing every night. Our lists by care type, such as dementia care homes and homes for younger adults, start from what each home is registered to do.
- Visit before you decide.Compare what you see with what you have read, then use the questions further down.
What no rating can tell you
Money and rooms
A rating says nothing about the current fee, whether there is a vacancy or what is charged extra. For the money side, see our guide to care home costs and our guide to who pays.
Fit for one person
The CQC rates the service, not how well it will suit your relative's habits, language, faith or health needs. Only a visit and a conversation with the manager can show that.
Services without an overall grade
The CQC does not give an overall rating to a care home that also provides homecare in the community. Some services are not rated at all, which is why a few homes show a blank.
The days since the report
A rating describes the day of the inspection. New managers, staff changes and building work can all move things in either direction afterwards.
Eight questions for the manager
- How do staffing levels change overnight and at weekends?
- How are medicines given, recorded and reviewed?
- What training do staff have for the person's particular needs, such as dementia or diabetes?
- Which GP practice or community nurses cover the home, and how often do they visit?
- How are residents and families involved when a care plan is written and reviewed?
- What did the last inspection ask you to change, and what has changed since?
- How are complaints and safeguarding concerns handled, and can I see the policy?
- What is in the weekly fee, what costs extra, and how are rises decided?
When something about a home worries you
- Raise it with the manager.Ask for the home's complaints procedure and put your concern in writing so there is a record.
- Tell the regulator.The CQC takes feedback on any care service through its online form. It says what people tell it helps decide when, where and what to inspect.
- Take an unresolved complaint further.The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman looks at adult social care complaints, including care that is funded privately without council involvement.
Where the definitions and numbers come from
- CQC, our ratings and scoresThe four ratings, the score bands (88 to 100 Outstanding, 63 to 87 Good, 39 to 62 Requires improvement, 38 or lower Inadequate) and the reasons some services have no rating. Checked on 12 November 2026.
- CQC, the 5 key questions we askThe wording of Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well-led. Checked on 12 November 2026.
- CQC, how we publish our findingsWhat a report contains, the action plan a provider must write and the follow-up inspections. Checked on 12 November 2026.
- CQC, planning assessmentsWhere the evidence for a care home report comes from. Checked on 12 November 2026.
- CQC, using CQC dataThe care directory file the counts above are built from. Checked on 12 November 2026.
The counts are ours, from the register data loaded on MyCareCheck on 2 November 2026, and move whenever the CQC publishes a new report. Written by the MyCareCheck editorial team and updated on 13 November 2026.