CQC Ratings Explained: What Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Inadequate Mean (2026)

In short: the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspects care homes in England and gives them one of four ratings: Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement or Inadequate. "Requires improvement" means the home is not performing as well as it should, and CQC has told it how it must improve. Always check the date of the rating and which of the five areas pulled it down.

What the four ratings mean

CQC is the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. It describes its four ratings like this:

• Outstanding: the service is performing exceptionally well.
• Good: the service is performing well and meeting CQC's expectations.
• Requires improvement: the service is not performing as well as it should, and CQC has told it how it must improve.
• Inadequate: the service is performing badly, and CQC has taken action against the person or organisation that runs it.

Most inspection reports include an overall rating. A care home that also provides homecare in the community is rated for each service but does not get an overall rating. Some services have no rating yet, for example because they have registered but have not been assessed.

The five key questions

As well as the overall rating, CQC gives a rating for each of five key questions. A home rated Good overall can still be rated lower in one area, so look at all five.

• Safe: people are protected from abuse and avoidable harm.
• Effective: care and support achieve good outcomes, help people keep a good quality of life and are based on the best available evidence.
• Caring: staff involve people and treat them with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect.
• Responsive: services are organised to meet people's needs.
• Well-led: the leadership, management and governance make sure the service gives high-quality care built around each person.

Percentage scores in newer reports

Newer CQC reports also show a percentage score, to show whether a service is near the top or the bottom of its rating. The bands are:

• 88% to 100%: Outstanding
• 63% to 87%: Good
• 39% to 62%: Requires improvement
• 38% or lower: Inadequate

CQC plans to stop using scores (see "Is CQC changing how it rates care homes?" below).

What "Requires improvement" means for a care home

A home rated Requires improvement has been told by CQC what it must do better. CQC says its reports set out any breaches of the regulations, and the provider must respond to the concerns, write an action plan and make improvements. CQC follows up, either by contacting the provider or by visiting for a focused inspection.

Where CQC finds care has fallen short, it can use requirement notices or warning notices to set out what must improve and by when. For more serious failings it can put conditions on a provider's registration, place it in special measures, or issue cautions, fines or prosecutions.

A Requires improvement rating can mean different things in different homes. Before you rule a home in or out, read the report and ask:

• Which of the five key questions were rated Requires improvement, and why?
• How old is the inspection?
• What has the home changed since then, and can it show you its action plan?

How common is "Requires improvement"?

AskBart's analysis of CQC data (as at 1 September 2026) found that 2,369 of 13,638 rated care homes in England (17.4%) were rated Requires improvement or Inadequate: 2,268 Requires improvement and 101 Inadequate. See where care homes are most often rated below Good, council by council.

How often are care homes inspected?

CQC does not inspect every home on a fixed timetable. It says it acts quickly where it finds extreme or very high risk. For adult social care in 2026 its priorities include:

• services with urgent, emerging risks;
• services not assessed since registration where its data shows very high risk;
• services registered for over a year that have not yet been assessed;
• services with a rating over six years old.

CQC has said that ratings may not always reflect current performance and that it is working on "aged ratings". By August 2026 it had completed more than 9,646 assessments across all sectors, against a target of 9,000 by the end of September 2026.

How to read a CQC report

On CQC's page for each care home you'll find the latest report and ratings, older reports to download, who runs the home and its contact details. The report explains what CQC found under each key question, the good practice it saw, any concerns and any breaches of regulations. You can also sign up for email alerts when a service is inspected. Our guide on how to read a CQC report goes through it step by step.

Care homes must show their current rating at the home, for example near the main entrance, and on any website they run that describes the service.

Is CQC changing how it rates care homes?

Yes, but the new approach is not in use yet. CQC currently uses its single assessment framework, which is built on the five key questions with "quality statements" under each one, and gives percentage scores.

After a public consultation called Better regulation, better care, which closed on 11 December 2025, CQC said it will:

• bring back published "rating characteristics" describing what care looks like at each of the four rating levels;
• replace quality statements with new "key lines of enquiry";
• remove scoring, so ratings are based on inspectors' professional judgement;
• give ratings directly for each of the five key questions.

CQC consulted on draft frameworks for each sector, including adult social care, until 12 June 2026. It is piloting the new approach between June and October 2026, with a final evaluation in November 2026. Pilot judgements do not affect any rating. Until the new approach starts, CQC says providers should keep using its current published guidance. The four ratings and the five key questions stay the same in its plans.

Scotland and Wales

• Scotland: the Care Inspectorate grades care services on a six-point scale: 6 Excellent, 5 Very good, 4 Good, 3 Adequate, 2 Weak and 1 Unsatisfactory.
• Wales: since 1 April 2025, Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) has given care homes a rating for each of four themes (well-being, care and support, leadership and management, and environment). Each theme is rated Excellent, Good, Requires improvement or Requires significant improvement. By law, care homes must display these ratings on their website if they have one, and most must display them at the home too.

On AskBart we show the regulator's own ratings and never our own. How we rate care homes explains this.

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Sources

• Our ratings and scores (Care Quality Commission)
• The 5 key questions we ask (Care Quality Commission)
• How we publish our findings (Care Quality Commission)
• Taking action (Care Quality Commission)
• Find a care home (Care Quality Commission)
• Display of ratings: care homes (Care Quality Commission)
• Priorities for delivering more assessments and tackling aged ratings, May 2026 (Care Quality Commission)
• Piloting, testing and evaluation of new assessment method, June 2026 (Care Quality Commission)
• Rebuilding our regulatory approach and digital services, August 2026 (Care Quality Commission)
• Initial response to Better regulation, better care (Care Quality Commission)
• Draft sector-specific assessment frameworks (Care Quality Commission)
• What to expect when we inspect (Care Inspectorate)
• Ratings for care homes and domiciliary support services launches in Wales (Care Inspectorate Wales)
• Care homes rated Requires improvement by council (AskBart)