Insights · England · Refreshed weekly · 4 years of inspection reports analysed

The state of home-care regulation

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National Regional Failure themes Owner-management

Home-care agencies

14,456

across England

Have no current rating

40.5%

5,851 of 14,456

Owner-managed agencies

5,613

48.2% of resolved

Reports analysed

5,659

4 years of CQC inspection PDFs

Filtered toLondon· 2,431 agencies · 50.7% Good+

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Click any region to filter every chart on this page to that area. Hover for a quick rating breakdown.

The headline

Same regulator. Same framework. Very different outcomes by region — colour saturation shows % rated Good or Outstanding.

League · % Good+

Regional ranking

Region	Agencies	% Good+
North East	420	72.6%
South West	1,323	59.3%
Yorkshire & Humberside	1,260	59.0%
North West	1,602	55.2%
✓ London	2,431	50.7%
East	1,827	50.1%
South East	2,513	49.3%
East Midlands	1,444	46.5%
West Midlands	1,623	45.2%

London · agencies

2,431

Rated Good+

50.7%

1,232 of 2,431

Owner-managed

54.3%

1,084 of 1,998 resolved

Not rated

1,018

42% of region

By Key Question

London rating mix

Safe50% Good+

Effective54% Good+

Ownership share by region

The north-south gradient — owner-managed vs corporate

Region	Resolved	% Owner-managed
London	1,998	54.3%
East Midlands	1,168	54.0%
East	1,502	51.1%
West Midlands	1,278	49.6%
South East

Plain English

Why this matters

CQC’s own data shows ~70% of community social-care providers lack a current rating; uninspected locations grew 64% in 14 months. CQC is targeting 9,000 assessments by September 2026 — about 500/month across all sectors. For home-care alone, the backlog grows faster than throughput.

Sources: Homecare Association (Apr 2026), DHSC operational-effectiveness review (2014–2024), CQC March 2026 update.

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Provider	Branches	Rating mix
London Care Limited	12
Midshires Care Limited	11
Eleanor Nursing and Social Care Limited	8
MiHomecare Limited	7
Unique Personnel (U.K.) Limited	7
Supreme Care Services Limited	7
J.C.Michael Groups Ltd	7
Care Outlook Ltd	7
Creative Support Limited	6
Westminster Homecare Limited	6