Care Home Ratings

Our methodology

We combine multiple open datasets to give families a fuller picture of each care home and its surroundings. This page explains exactly what we use, how we use it, and the editorial decisions we've made.

CQC ratings and inspection data

Source
Care Quality Commission public API
Licence
Open Government Licence v3.0
Coverage
14,796 care homes in England

Every care home listed on this site is CQC-registered. We pull current ratings, the five quality area ratings (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-led), bed count, service types, specialisms, and inspection dates directly from the CQC's API — the same source that feeds the CQC's own website.

Inspection trend

Source
CQC API — historic inspection ratings
Coverage
10,746 care homes with rated inspections

A CQC rating is a snapshot. We think families also deserve to know the direction of travel. For each care home with more than one rated inspection, we compare the two most recent ratings to show whether the home is improving, stable, or declining.

Inspections marked “Inspected but not rated” are excluded from this calculation. We only compare full rated inspections.

Current distribution:

  • Improving — 2,878 care homes (27%)
  • Stable — 5,996 care homes (56%)
  • Declining — 812 care homes (7.5%)
  • Only one inspection on record — 1,060 care homes (10%)

Nearest A&E hospital

Source
OpenStreetMap via Overpass API
Licence
Open Database Licence (ODbL)
Coverage
202 hospitals with A&E in England

For each care home, we calculate the straight-line distance to the nearest hospital with an Accident & Emergency department. This is not driving distance — actual travel time will depend on roads and traffic. We state this on the site.

The median distance from a care home to the nearest A&E is 4.6 miles. 78% of care homes are within 10 miles.

What we don't show (and why)

We hold additional datasets that we've chosen not to display to families, because we don't believe they help with the decision at hand.

Area deprivation data (from the English Indices of Deprivation 2019) tells us about the socioeconomic profile of the neighbourhood around each care home. Academic research shows a modest link between area deprivation and care quality, driven primarily by differences in how care is funded. However, we decided this information is not actionable for families — the CQC rating and inspection trend already capture quality directly — and presenting areas as “deprived” risks stigmatising homes that provide perfectly good care.

Limitations

  • CQC ratings reflect a point in time. A home may have changed since its last inspection. The inspection trend helps, but it's still based on the last two inspections — there could be more recent changes.
  • We cover England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate regulators and are not included.
  • Hospital distances are approximate. Straight-line calculations do not account for roads, traffic or public transport.
  • We don't have pricing. Care home fees vary significantly and are not published in any open dataset. We recommend contacting homes directly for current fees.
  • This is a starting point, not a decision. We strongly recommend visiting homes in person, speaking with staff, and talking to families of current residents.

How this site is funded

Care Home Ratings is free to use. We may earn a small commission if you click through to a recommended product or service (such as mobility aids, legal services, or insurance) and make a purchase. These links are clearly marked.

Our editorial content and care home data are completely independent of any commercial relationships. We only recommend products from companies with a Trustpilot rating of 4.0 or above, and we always include non-commercial alternatives. No care home can pay to influence its rating or position in our search results.

Questions about our data?

If you spot an error, have a question about our methodology, or want to discuss using our data, email hello@carehomeratings.co.uk.