What Criteria Does CQC Use for Its Press Releases on Care Homes?

In our previous article, the Caregraph analysed the overall press releases published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in July 2025 and found that care homes received the hardest coverage, with a higher proportion of negative stories compared with other settings.

Building on that work, the Caregraph has now examined the monthly data that CQC makes publicly available under the Open Government Licence for July.

In July, CQC Published 189 Inspection Reports for Care Homes

The chart below shows how these ratings were distributed across the four outcome categories.

When comparing the 20 care home reports featured in CQC’s July press releases with the 189 inspection reports actually published, it becomes clear that the press coverage does not reflect the full picture of assessments.

The Caregraph carried out a simple online search of all the homes listed below and found that most had received coverage in national or local media.

Care Homes Mentioned in CQC Press Releases – July 2025

Dates are CQC report publication dates. © The Caregraph 2025

CQC on Why Inspection Findings Are Shared with the Media

It is unclear whether CQC has formally published detailed criteria for deciding which inspection reports become press releases. In its guidance on assessing quality and performance, last updated on 31 July 2025, CQC sets out the following under the section Informing the media:

“Where we find very poor care, outstanding care, or significant improvements, we will also share a summary of our findings with the media. This helps our reports reach a wider audience and gives people who use services and their families an increased opportunity to see and understand our findings.”

This is the only public statement of rationale we found. Our analysis therefore sets out to compare this declared approach with the actual outcomes in July 2025.

While the regulator highlights a small number of cases each month, the data shows that 189 care home reports were published in July, with the majority rated “Good”. Yet only 20 were featured in press releases, most of which focused on negative outcomes.

Were Some Homes Left Out of the July Press Releases?

The Caregraph also looked at whether every Outstanding and Inadequate care home published in July was featured in CQC’s press releases.

We found a small number that did not appear in the announcements

In each case, the inspection report was published late in July, so these homes may yet appear in CQC’s August press releases. The regulator may also have internal criteria for deciding which services to highlight, which we were not able to identify during this research.

The Caregraph View

CQC cannot feature every inspection in its press releases, and the regulator is right to call out poor care. But when most announcements highlight failure, the public see only one side of the story. This creates pressure on providers and can discourage confidence in the sector. The challenge is to strike a balance that reflects both the risks and the many examples of good and outstanding care.