Understanding CQC ratings: what they mean for your family

The Care Quality Commission is the independent regulator of health and social care in England. Every registered home care provider is inspected, and most receive a public rating. Here is how to read those ratings sensibly when choosing care.

The five key questions

Inspectors assess services against five questions. Is the service safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led? They speak to clients and relatives, interview staff, and examine records such as care plans, risk assessments and medication charts.

The four rating levels

Read the report, not just the badge

Two providers with the same rating can be very different. A "Requires Improvement" rating can reflect paperwork and process issues while the day-to-day care is praised by clients, or it can reflect genuine concerns about safety. The report tells you which. Look for what clients and relatives actually said, whether concerns were about care or administration, what the provider was asked to fix, and how old the report is.

The most telling sign is how the provider talks about their rating. Providers who publish their report, explain their improvement plan and show progress are usually safer choices than providers who bury it.

Where Primavera stands

Our overall rating is Requires Improvement, from a focused inspection published in January 2023. We were rated Good at our previous comprehensive inspection in 2020, and our Caring and Responsive ratings remain Good. Inspectors reported that clients found their carers kind and caring, felt safe, and received their medicines safely; the improvements required concerned recruitment files, management oversight and the consistency of care plans. We publish the report and our improvement plan in full on our About & CQC page.