How often does CQC inspect care homes?

How often does CQC inspect care homes?

CQC has no fixed timetable. It decides when to assess a care home based on risk and the information it receives, so your next assessment is either planned or a response to concerns. Many services wait years: on 1 October 2026, 69% of rated adult social care services in England had a rating more than three years old.

Because nobody knows the date, the safest plan is to be ready all the time. A practice run with the free CQC mock inspection kit takes about half a day and shows you what an inspector would see.

How CQC decides when to come

CQC says the frequency of assessments “will depend on the information we receive and the evidence we collect”. Each service’s next assessment is one of two kinds:

• Planned. CQC orders its planned assessments by risk, using what it knows about each service.
• Responsive. CQC acts on concerning information, for example from people who use the service, relatives, staff, whistleblowers, safeguarding teams, notifications or commissioners.

In May 2026 CQC set out its priorities for adult social care. It said it would focus first on:

1. services with urgent, emerging risks spotted by its inspection teams
2. services not assessed since registration where its data shows very high risk
3. services registered for more than a year that have not yet been assessed
4. services with a rating more than six years old.

CQC also announced a lighter-touch approach for some long-standing Good services. To qualify, a service must be rated Good in all five key questions, have a registered manager, have ratings more than six years old, show no significant risk in CQC’s data and have no ongoing enforcement action. These assessments focus on people’s experiences and outcomes, supported by observation and targeted record checks. If concerns come up while CQC plans the visit, it goes back to its usual approach.

What a rating older than three years means

Age of the latest published rating, adult social care services in England, 1 October 2026:

Source: CQC open data, care directory with ratings, analysed by CareKudos. 22,722 services had a published rating.

If your rating is in the bottom rows, three things follow:

• Your next assessment could come at any time. CQC is working through a backlog by risk, and you will not get a date in advance.
• It will use a different framework. Services rated more than three years ago were assessed before the single assessment framework arrived, and CQC is preparing new sector-specific frameworks.
• Your rating may no longer describe your service. Families and commissioners still read the old report, for better or for worse.

Will CQC tell you before they come?

Usually not, if you run a care home. CQC says most inspections of care homes and nursing homes are unannounced, and they can happen on any day of the week, including evenings, nights and weekends. Announced inspections are more common in services that support people in their own homes, such as home care and supported living, where CQC asks the provider to help it get people’s permission for a visit.

What happens during and after an assessment

• On site. Inspectors talk to people, relatives and staff, observe everyday care and check records, including whether the rota matches the staff on duty.
• Information requests. Under Regulation 17(3), CQC can ask for a written report on how you assess, monitor and improve quality and safety, and on your improvement plans. You must send it within 28 days, counting from the day after you receive the request. CQC says this can include an action plan or a Provider Information Return.
• Factual accuracy check. CQC sends you the draft report so you can point out information that is wrong or evidence that is missing.
• Publication. CQC publishes the report and ratings. You must display your rating at the service and on your website.
• Rating review. If you believe CQC did not follow its own process, you can ask for a rating process review within 15 working days of publication.

How long does a CQC inspection take?

There is no set length. Time on site depends on the size of your service and what the inspectors need to see. The whole assessment takes longer than the visit, because it also includes information requests, the draft report and your factual accuracy check before anything is published.

How to stay ready between assessments

• Keep evidence dated and in one place. Monthly beats a folder built the week before an inspection.
• Run a practice inspection once or twice a year. Our guide to the mock CQC inspection shows the steps and timings.
• Send notifications without delay. Serious injuries, abuse or allegations of abuse and incidents reported to the police must be notified to CQC.
• Know who answers the door. Name a person on every shift who can welcome inspectors, show them round and find records.
• Prepare your team. Talk through the questions CQC asks care staff in handovers, one key question a week.

How the evidence builds itself

When the date is unknown, evidence has to build up month by month. In CareKudos, recognition from colleagues, managers and families, Good Catch observations and the monthly anonymous Staff Voice survey flow into one evidence report, sorted under CQC’s key questions. You can generate it for any month, or let it build itself every month, so the picture is current on the day the inspector calls.

Questions managers ask