How to read a CQC inspection report

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It registers and inspects every care home, and publishes what it finds.

The four ratings

The CQC gives each care home one of four ratings:

• Outstanding: the service is performing exceptionally well
• Good: the service is performing well and meeting expectations
• Requires improvement: the service is not performing as well as it should
• Inadequate: the service is performing badly

The five key questions

As well as an overall rating, each home is rated on five questions:

1. Safe: are people protected from abuse and avoidable harm?
2. Effective: does the care achieve good outcomes and help people keep a good quality of life?
3. Caring: do staff treat people with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect?
4. Responsive: are services organised to meet people’s needs?
5. Well-led: is the home managed well, with a culture of high-quality care?

How to find a report

Search for the home by name or postcode on the CQC website. Each home has a page with its current rating, the date of the report and the full report to read. Care homes must also display their current rating in the home and on their website.

What to look for

• The date. Check when the home was last inspected. You can ask the home what has changed since.
• The detail. Read beyond the headline rating. Each section says what inspectors saw and heard from residents, families and staff.
• The registered manager. A stable, registered manager is often a good sign.
• Any actions. If the home was told to improve something, ask how it has done so.

Cedar House

The CQC rated Cedar House Good overall and Good in all five areas. You can read the Cedar House report on the CQC website. Our home care service, Cedar House - The Annex, is also rated Good. See our CQC reports.