Your CQC rating, for every home
In England, Regulation 20A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 says a provider that has a CQC rating must display it on its website, if it has one, as well as at the home itself. CQC’s guidance gives you 21 calendar days from the day it publishes the rating on its own website.
The simplest way to get it right is CQC’s own widget. Every location CQC regulates has one. It shows the current rating, links to the full report, and updates itself when the rating changes, so the website never shows an old one.
Put it where a family looks first. The CMA’s advice to care homes says your inspection rating should be on the main home page of the website. If you run more than one home, each home has its own rating, so each home’s page needs its own widget.
Your fees, and what they do and do not cover
This is the first question every family has. The Competition and Markets Authority’s consumer law advice to care homes expects an indication of your weekly fees for self-funding residents: the full range you typically charge, for each type of care and each type of room, under a heading that makes clear who the figures are for.
It also asks you to say:
- what the weekly fee includes;
- what costs extra, such as being taken to medical appointments;
- any upfront payment, such as a deposit: how much, what it covers and how it is refunded.
The same advice says this key information should be no more than one click from the home page, whatever someone opens it on. A clear range is enough. You are not publishing a contract; you are telling a family whether to keep reading.
Who pays for what
Families arrive confused about funding, so explain it before they have to ask. Say whether you take residents who pay for themselves, residents funded by the local authority and residents funded by the NHS, and whether a top-up may be needed.
If you ask self-funders to show they can pay for a minimum period, or you need a guarantor, say so plainly. The CMA names both as terms a family should be told about at the start, not found in the contract later. If you provide nursing care, explain how the NHS Funded Nursing Care contribution relates to the fees you quote.
Which rooms are available, with the date on it
A vacancy line is only useful if it is current. Put the date it was last updated beside it, so a family knows whether to ring. A line that says rooms are available, with no date, gets ignored, or gets a call about a room that went last month.
Never make rooms sound scarcer than they are. The CMA’s advice lists falsely claiming limited availability, to hurry a decision, among the practices that are always unfair.
Photographs of the real rooms
Stock photographs do more harm than good, because the family will visit. Photograph the actual bedrooms, the en-suites, the lounge, the dining room and the garden, in ordinary light, tidy but not staged, and caption each one with the type of room so the photographs line up with your fees.
Beside them, give the basics a family compares: the care needs you cater for, the number of beds and how the home is staffed. The CMA lists those as key information too.
A virtual visit
Not every family can come and look round before deciding, and some are choosing from the other end of the country. A short video walk-round of the home, and the offer of a video call with the manager, lets them get a feel for the place first. The families who then visit have already decided they like it.
A section for families
The person searching is usually a son or a daughter, often late at night after a hard week. Write a section for them: what happens from the first call to moving in, what to bring, visiting, a typical day, the menu, how to raise a concern and your complaints procedure.
Then give them an enquiry form they can fill in at eleven at night, instead of waiting until Monday to ring.
A careers page that makes a carer apply
Your website recruits as well as sells. List the roles you are hiring for with the hours and the pay, the training you give, how to get there without a car, and a short application a carer can finish in a few minutes, with the name of the person who replies.
One website for a group of homes
If you run several homes, give each one its own page with its own rating, fees, photographs and vacancy line, so a family never has to work out which home a detail belongs to. The CMA’s advice says the same of group websites: the key information about each home should be no more than one click from that home’s first page.
Sources
Checked against these on 6 October 2026. Rules and help pages change, so check the current version before you rely on a detail.
