How we publish our findings

Page last updated: 25 August 2022
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Public

We use the evidence we collect to reach judgements about the quality of care. We publish reports about the services we inspect on our website.

After each inspection, we produce a report. In most cases our reports include ratings, which show our overall judgement of the quality of care.

Our reports set out what our findings on each of the five key questions mean for the people who use the service. We describe the good practice we find, as well as any concerns we have. We clearly set out any evidence about breaches of regulations.

We also make recommendations to help the care provider improve their rating.

Quality control

We aim to be consistent in everything we do. To help us achieve this we set up quality assurance panels to look at samples of our rating judgements to check consistency.

Action planning

The care provider must respond to areas of concern that we have identified, develop an action plan to address them and make improvements. We will follow up on any action we tell care providers to take. We may follow up by contacting the care provider or visiting the service to carry out a focused inspection.

When we inspect acute hospital trusts, specialist mental health services and community health services, our inspection findings are discussed at a quality summit. This is a meeting with the care provider and partners in the local health and social care system.

Publication

We publish inspection reports and ratings on our website.

Contact us to request reports published by the health and social care regulators before CQC