The Care Quality Commission (CQC) serves as the independent regulator of health and adult social care services in England. It conducts monitoring, inspections, and regulation to ensure that providers adhere to essential standards of quality and safety.

These standards represent the level of care that healthcare services are obligated to meet, and what everyone should anticipate when receiving care.

The CQC evaluates the quality and safety of care by assessing whether the service is:

• Safe
• Effective
• Caring
• Responsive to People’s Needs
• Well-led

Inspections, carried out by professional and clinical staff, patients, and carers from NHS organizations nationwide, can be announced or unannounced. Following an inspection, the CQC provides judgments on the service’s performance.

Services are rated on a four-point scale by the CQC: outstanding, good, requires improvement, or inadequate.

For further information, visit the Care Quality Commission’s website, where details of all visits and assessments are available.