Regulation and Inspection of Care services

All Health Services, Care Homes, Domiciliary Care Agencies, and Care Homes with nursing in England are currently regulated by The Care Quality Commission. CQC is an independent body set up by the Government to regulate, inspect and review all adult social care and Health services in the public, private and voluntary sectors.

CQC inspect and produce a written report on each care service. As part of the inspection process the provider is asked to submit a compliance assessment about their service, CQC send out questionnaires to service users, their families and health care professionals who deal with the service to get their views on what the service does well, and not so well. Finally they may conduct a visit to the service to see for themselves the care provided.

In 2008 a new star rating for Care homes, Domiciliary Care Agencies and Care Homes with Nursing was introduced. When each service was inspected it was given a star rating from 0-3 stars.

3 stars = Excellent
2 stars = Good
1 star = Adequate
0 star = Poor

This practice has now ceased but many care providers still use the star ratings from their last inspection. It can only give an indication of its star rating at the date of the last inspection. It is important you review the latest inspection reports to ascertain the current standards of a service.

If you would like further information on CQC or to view a particular care service's inspection report please visit www.cqc.org.uk. Details of care services in Surrey can also be found on www.surreycare.co.uk.