Complain about CQC

Page last updated: 17 April 2023
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We aim to provide the best possible service, but we do not always get it right.

Your feedback helps us improve our services and how our staff carry out their roles.

How to complain

Make your complaint to the person you have been dealing with at CQC. They will usually be the best person to resolve the matter.

If you feel unable to do this, or you have tried and were unsuccessful, you can contact our National Customer Service Centre who will pass your concerns to our complaints team.


Things our complaints team can deal with

Our complaints team can deal with complaints from anyone directly affected by the way we carry out our work, including complaints about members of our staff or people working for us.

You can also make a complaint on someone else’s behalf with their consent. This could be a relative or someone you care for.

Examples of what you can complain about include where you think we have:

  • made administrative mistakes (such as providing the wrong information or taking longer than we said we would to do something)
  • behaved in an unprofessional way
  • not followed our policies and procedures

Things our complaints team cannot deal with

There are some issues that our complaints team cannot deal with.

These include:

  • Evidence from our inspections, ratings and decisions made under our regulatory powers.
  • The action we take if we find that a care provider or manager is not meeting the standards expected of them, or other other decisions around regulation, including enforcement and registration
  • Requests to speed up registration applications
  • Employment issues from current or past CQC employees, or from staff from services we regulate
  • Disputes with suppliers about contracts
  • The Government, NHS bodies, local councils and other organisations that we work with
  • The fees that care providers pay us to stay registered (except where we have made a mistake and charged the wrong fee)
  • Legislation and our role as set by Parliament

If we are taking enforcement action against a care provider, we may not be able to consider a complaint from them until the legal process has finished.


You should contact us within a year of becoming aware of the issues relating to the complaint.

If you would like help in making your complaint, you can contact a local advocacy service to support you. For a list of advocacy services in your area, contact your local council, citizen’s advice bureau or your local Healthwatch.

Our complaints team will look at the issues and tell you if we can handle your complaint.

If we can take forward your complaint, we will let you know how the investigation will work. We may ask you to provide more information to help us.

When we have completed the investigation, we will tell you what we found, and, if appropriate, what we are doing to put things right.

If you are not satisfied

If you are not happy with the outcome of your complaint, you can contact the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) through your Member of Parliament.