CQC State of Care 2026: how to check a home care provider

To check a home care provider, search for it on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website. Make sure the page is for the branch that would send your carers. Note the assessment date and read all five findings, then ask the agency about carers, training and price in writing.

CQC’s yearly State of Care report, published on 23 October 2026, is mostly reassuring on quality. The rest of it is less so. Fewer people get council-funded care, more pay for it themselves, and more families choose an agency on their own. Here is what that means in Ealing, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Harrow and Brent, and how to read a provider’s CQC page before you sign anything.

What State of Care says about home care

State of Care is CQC’s yearly assessment of health and social care in England. It summarises the ratings CQC gave when it assessed services under its current framework. Of the 2,121 homecare services it assessed between January 2024 and August 2026, 76% were rated good and 4% outstanding. A further 18% were rated requires improvement and 2% inadequate. Among the 3,783 care homes assessed in the same way, 67% were rated good and 3% outstanding.

Two cautions sit beside those numbers. CQC chose which services to assess based on risk, and it says the results may not represent every service. The sector is also growing fast. Just over 13,500 homecare services were registered in April 2026, 42% more than in April 2019. CQC estimates that 30% of them care for 4 or fewer people. A small, new agency may simply not have a rating yet.

The Homecare Association, which represents providers, welcomed the ratings. It said homecare is being reshaped “by accident, not design”, and argued that the way councils buy and fund care is affecting which services can keep going.

Fewer people funded by the council, more choosing for themselves

Around 223,000 fewer adults were getting long-term council-funded support at the end of 2024/25 than 20 years earlier. For 70% of new requests for council-funded care, the recorded outcome went no further than information. Councils overspent their 2025/26 adult social care budgets by £715 million, according to the ADASS Spring Survey that CQC cites.

CQC also points to the means test. The standard upper savings limit in England has been £23,250 since 2010/11. For care at home, the council’s financial assessment does not count the person’s home, but it does look at other savings and income, with some amounts disregarded. Councils can set a higher limit for care at home. So the only way to know what someone would pay is to ask the council for a financial assessment, or read our guide to funding home care.

Almost 1 in 4 people receiving homecare in England paid for it themselves in 2025/26, up one percentage point in two years. CQC says some providers, especially care homes, are looking for people who pay privately to stay viable. The Homecare Association’s study of council-funded contracts, published on 15 October, gives the regional context. Councils in England paid an average of £25.37 an hour for homecare in 2026/27. The association’s own modelled Minimum Price is £34.42, which is a benchmark, not a legal minimum. Greater London had the lowest regional average, £22.66 an hour.

For West London families that has two effects. If the council arranges care, ask how it checks the agencies it uses. If you pay yourself, the choice is yours. With a direct payment, the council pays you the agreed budget and you arrange the support in your care plan, which can include choosing the agency. Either way, the checks below apply.

Hospital discharge is the other London story. In 2025/26, among people who had been in hospital for 14 days or longer, delays in completing transfers to social care accounted for 20% of delayed discharges in London. That was the highest regional share for this cause, and much of it involved transfers to care homes.

Staff, training and the families doing the rest

In the care home and homecare data CQC cites, vacancy and turnover rates are falling, and fewer staff are being recruited from overseas. Where CQC rated services inadequate for the Safe key question, it found they did not always make sure staff had the skills to meet people’s needs safely. In the unweighted Skills for Care data CQC used, 38% of staff providing direct care had a completed dementia training course recorded. That is a figure for the dataset, not a measure of any one carer, which is why it is worth asking an agency directly.

In the report’s section on unpaid carers, carers were less satisfied with the services and support they received than people using services generally. Some described delays or never being offered an assessment, and some said they felt “forgotten about”.

The report also tells the story of Joanne and Raymond, who moved between two homecare services. The first sent carers they could not predict, who were often late and left early. The second gave them a core team that arrived on time and stayed for the whole visit. In Joanne’s view, its staff were also better trained for her husband’s condition.

How to check a home care provider’s CQC rating

Use CQC’s Find homecare agencies search with the agency’s name or your postcode. An agency with several branches has a separate CQC page for each registered location. Use the page for the branch that would arrange your visits. Each page shows the latest report and ratings, earlier reports where there are any, and who runs the service.

Start with the overall rating, the date of the assessment and the date the report was published. CQC says requires improvement means it has told the service how it must improve, and inadequate means it has taken action. Then read the rating for each of the five key questions. The overall rating is built from those five, not from one overall percentage.

Some newer reports show a percentage score for a key question that CQC assessed under its scoring method. A good rating covers scores from 63% to 87%. Not every key question has a published score, so use the scores as a guide to the findings, not a league table. CQC has also proposed removing scores as it revises its assessments. Our article on CQC’s framework overhaul and CQC’s own consultation response explain what is changing.

A provider with a rating must by law show it on its website and at its premises within 21 calendar days of CQC publishing it. If an agency has no rating, it may have registered recently and not been assessed yet. Ask when it registered and whether CQC has assessed it.

Questions to ask before you choose

A report shows how a service was when it was assessed. These questions show how it works now.

• What is your current CQC rating, when was the assessment, and what have you changed since the report?
• How many different carers would my mother see in a normal week, and who covers when her regular carer is off?
• Have the carers who would visit completed dementia training, and can you tell me what it covered?
• What is the hourly rate, is there a minimum visit length, and do evenings, weekends or bank holidays cost more?
• Will you put the full price and the notice period in writing before care starts?
• How will we know a visit happened and how long the carer stayed?

What a home care team adds

CQC rated Marigold Home Care Good in all five key questions after an assessment on 6 January 2026, in a report published on 22 February 2026. The full report is public, and we are happy to talk you through any part of it. We place the same small team of carers with each person wherever possible. Beyond the Care Certificate, we provide specialist training relevant to our client group, including dementia awareness, and senior staff carry out unannounced spot checks in clients’ homes.

Visiting care starts from £21.96 an hour, with no extra charge at weekends or on bank holidays, and you get a clear written quote before care begins.

Questions families ask

How do I check a home care agency’s CQC rating?

Search the agency’s name or your postcode on CQC’s Find homecare agencies page, and choose the branch that would arrange your visits. Check the date of the assessment as well as the rating.

What does “requires improvement” mean for a home care agency?

It means the service is not performing as well as it should and CQC has told it how it must improve. Read which of the five key questions caused the rating, and ask the agency what it has changed since.

Is a home care agency with no CQC rating unsafe?

Not necessarily. Some services have registered with CQC but not yet been assessed, and a rated service may still have no rating for some key questions. Ask when it registered and how its managers check care in people’s homes. Check, too, that it is registered for personal care, such as washing, dressing and help with medicines. Support that does not include personal care, such as companionship or cleaning, is not registered with CQC.

Which rating should I use if the agency has several branches?

Use the rating for the registered location that would arrange and manage your visits. A good rating at one branch does not tell you about another.

What if the rating is several years old?

Read the report, then ask the agency what has changed since: managers, staff numbers and how it checks visits. A recent complaint record and a straight answer to that question tell you more than the date alone.

Why are more families paying for home care themselves?

The standard upper savings limit has stayed at £23,250 since 2010/11, while councils are under financial pressure and fewer adults get long-term council-funded support. Your council’s adult social care team can tell you whether you qualify for help, after a needs assessment and a financial assessment.

Facts in this guide were checked against the sources below on 12 November 2026. A provider’s current rating is the one on CQC’s website; your council’s adult social care team has the final word on eligibility for funded care, and a qualified adviser on how to pay for it.