Guidance for Providers to display CQC ratings
These ratings tell the public whether a service is outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate. The guidance and Consultation documents can be found on the CQC website
Key points to note from the guidance:
- If you have been awarded a rating (outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate) from CQC, you must display it in each and every premises where a regulated activity is being delivered, in your main place of business, and on your website(s), where people will be sure to see it. This is a legal requirement from 1 April 2015.
- Your ratings must be displayed at the premises where your service is being provided unless you are delivering care to someone in their own home.
- CQC will assess whether or not your ratings are displayed legibly and conspicuously when we inspect.
- CQC will make posters for physical display of your rating available to download from our website. We strongly recommend you use these posters as they will help you ensure you meet the requirements of the regulations. You will be able to access your posters from our website from 1 April 2015. Information about how to download and print your posters is available here.
- Services regulated by CQC, but which are not awarded a rating (for example dentists), are exempt from this requirement.
- You have a maximum of 21 calendar days to display your ratings from the date your inspection report is published on the CQC website.
The requirement to display ratings comes into force from 1 April 2015. If you have already received a rating from CQC prior to this date you will have 21 calendar days from 1 April in which to download, print and display your poster(s) for physical display and to make amends to your website to meet the online display requirement.
We will carry out a review of the impact of the posters and online display and make iterative improvements based on feedback from the public, providers and other stakeholders.
Final guidance on regulations (the fundamental standards)
In addition to publishing the guidance for providers on display of ratings, we have also published the finalised regulations guidance, including the remaining regulations which we consulted on in January. This guidance forms part of the CQC guidance for providers on regulations which published in February.
The guidance and consultation response document are available on our website.
This is an important step towards completing our guidance on meeting the new regulations and how we will use our enforcement powers from 1 April 2015.
We will publish all remaining information to support the guidance later this month, including further details on meeting the Fit and proper person requirement for directors and the Duty of candour. In the meantime you can find more information on the Fit and proper person requirement and the Duty of candour in the guidance on regulations.
The guidance will help to ensure that providers, people who use services, the public and other stakeholders are clear about our expectations and judgements, the action we will take to ensure that we protect people from poor care and highlight good care, and our role in encouraging improvement in care quality.
How to find out more
Over the coming months we will be running a series of live Q&A sessions on the new guidance through our online community. If you’re not already a member of the community, please sign-up here to find out more details on how to join those sessions.
Take a look at our infographic on our website here, which explains how all of our guidance fits together.
If you can’t find an answer to your question on our website you can contact our national contact centre at enquiries@cqc.org.uk
