Sample policy · Reg 20A

Display of CQC Ratings Policy

Statutory anchor: Regulation 20A (requirement as to display of performance assessments), Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/2936). · primary source

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Verivius pack version v1, 2026-06-10

1. What the regulation says

The Commission's website address ... the place on the Commission's website where the most recent assessment ... may be accessed ... the most recent rating ... in a way which makes it clear to which activities or premises a particular rating relates. (Reg 20A(2): what must appear on a website)

Any sign displayed, or anything shown on a website, under this regulation must ... be legible, be displayed conspicuously in a place which is accessible to service users, and for each rating shown, show the date on which it was given by the Commission. (Reg 20A(7): legibility and conspicuousness)

The full text of the regulation is at https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/2936/regulation/20A. Where this policy and the regulation diverge, the regulation wins.

2. Plain-English summary

If CQC has assessed and rated your performance, you have to display the rating: on every website you maintain, on a sign at each premises where you provide regulated activities, and on a sign at your principal place of business. Each sign or website entry must be legible, conspicuously placed, accessible to service users, and show the date the rating was given. The duty does not apply at your own home or at premises that are a service user's accommodation when it is not provided as part of their care.

3. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to make sure that [Service Name] displays CQC ratings accurately, clearly and lawfully once a CQC rating applies.

The policy covers display at premises, display on websites, inherited or previous-provider rating information, review requests, rating changes and governance checks.

(Tenant updates the service name, provider legal entity, CQC provider ID, location IDs, website owner, premises list and rating-check cadence before adoption.)

4. Policy warning

The provider must not hide, obscure, delay, misrepresent or selectively display CQC ratings.

A rating must not be displayed in a way that makes it unclear which provider, location, regulated activity or premises the rating relates to.

If a rating is under review, the rating must still be displayed unless live CQC guidance says otherwise.

5. Scope

This policy applies where the provider has received a CQC rating for:

It applies to:

6. Responsibilities

The provider or Nominated Individual is responsible for ensuring the organisation complies with Regulation 20A.

The Registered Manager is responsible for checking that location displays are accurate and current.

The website owner or marketing lead is responsible for ensuring online ratings are accurate, live, legible and linked correctly.

The governance lead is responsible for checking ratings display during audit and after any CQC publication or change.

7. Ratings display procedure

The provider follows this procedure whenever it is registered with CQC, receives a rating, changes location, changes website, asks for a review of rating, acquires a service, or updates marketing material:

  1. Check the live CQC source. Confirm the provider page, each location page, the regulated activities shown, the rating, the rating date and whether CQC has published posters or widget resources.
  2. Decide what must be displayed. Record whether the duty applies to the provider, each location, each website and each premises where regulated activity is delivered.
  3. Prepare the display. Use the current CQC poster, widget or approved wording where applicable. Make clear which provider, location, premises or regulated activity the rating relates to.
  4. Update premises displays. Place the sign where people using the service can see it, check it is legible, and photograph the final display.
  5. Update website displays. Place the rating where users can find it easily, link to the relevant CQC page where required, and take screenshots of the published page.
  6. Check marketing material. Remove or correct old brochures, website sections, directory profiles, social posts or sales material that could mislead people about the current rating.
  7. Record the 21-day deadline. When CQC publishes a new rating, update premises and websites no later than 21 calendar days after publication and record the completion date.
  8. Handle review requests transparently. If the provider has asked for a review of rating, keep displaying the current rating and add only a clear note that does not obscure the rating.
  9. Manage inherited ratings carefully. If regulatory history or a previous-provider rating is relevant, make clear what belongs to the current provider and what does not.
  10. Close the action through governance. Record checks, evidence, exceptions and improvement actions, and review them at the next governance meeting.

8. When display is required

The service must check whether CQC has published a rating for the provider, location, premises or regulated activity.

Where a rating applies, the service must display it in line with current CQC requirements.

Where the service has not yet been rated, the provider must not invent or imply a rating.

Where the service is registered but not rated, the provider may use appropriate "regulated by CQC" wording or graphics only where current CQC guidance allows this.

9. Premises display

At each premises where regulated activity is provided, the provider must display the relevant CQC rating clearly and conspicuously in a place accessible to people using the service.

The display must show:

The provider should use CQC posters where appropriate.

10. Website display

Where the provider maintains a website, or a website is maintained on its behalf, the CQC rating must be displayed in line with current CQC requirements.

The website display must:

If the provider has multiple locations, each location page should show the relevant rating for that location where applicable.

11. Rating changes

When CQC publishes a new rating or updated report, the provider must update displays within the required timeframe. The provider must update premises and website displays no later than 21 calendar days after CQC publishes the rating on its website.

The update process must include:

12. Review of ratings

If the provider has requested a review of rating, the current published rating must still be displayed unless live CQC guidance says otherwise.

The provider may add a clear explanatory note that a review has been requested, but this note must not obscure, dilute or contradict the published rating.

13. Inherited or previous-provider ratings

Where a provider takes over an existing location or displays regulatory history from a previous provider, it must make clear whether the rating belongs to the current provider or the previous provider.

The provider must not display inherited rating information in a way that misleads people into believing that the current provider has been awarded that rating.

If there is uncertainty, the provider must check the live CQC page and seek advice before displaying inherited rating material.

14. Services not rated

Some CQC-regulated services may not receive ratings. The provider must check current CQC guidance for its service type.

Where the service is not rated, it must not claim or imply a rating. It may only use wording or graphics about CQC registration where these are accurate and permitted.

15. Promotional use of ratings

Where the provider uses CQC ratings in marketing or promotional material, it must ensure that:

Outstanding or Good ratings may be promoted, but not in a misleading way.

16. Audit

The Registered Manager or governance lead must check rating display:

The audit must check premises, website, provider and location pages, marketing material and any inherited rating references.

17. Records and register links

The provider must keep records of each rating-display check. The record should include:

Any late update, unclear display, inherited-rating uncertainty, website error, complaint or misleading-public-information risk is reviewed through the risk register and improvement-actions register. If people were misled or there is a regulatory concern, the issue is reviewed at the governance meeting and escalated to CQC or specialist advice where appropriate.

18. Training and competence

The provider makes sure the Registered Manager, website owner, marketing lead and premises leads understand Regulation 20A, the 21-day update rule, how to find the live CQC rating, how to use CQC posters or widgets where applicable, and how to avoid misleading presentation of inherited or old ratings.

Training records are held in the training matrix or governance file. Website and premises leads receive a short briefing after any rating change, provider acquisition, new location, website rebuild or CQC guidance update.

19. Review

This policy will be reviewed annually, or sooner after any CQC rating change, provider acquisition, new location, website change, CQC guidance update or regulatory concern.

20. Sources and further reading

This template is based on CQC's guidance for providers and managers, the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and other topic-specific legislation and guidance listed below. It is a starting point for adaptation, not a substitute for legal, clinical, HR, safeguarding or specialist professional advice.

21. Related reading

22. When to seek further advice

Seek specialist advice where the issue involves serious harm, safeguarding, deprivation of liberty, restraint, children, professional misconduct, controlled drugs, radiation, termination of pregnancy, infection outbreak, water safety, employment dismissal, DBS barring referral, or regulatory enforcement. For this policy in particular, seek advice where there is uncertainty about inherited ratings, provider acquisition, multiple-location display, website ownership, disputed ratings, archived ratings, promotional use of ratings or any risk that the public may be misled.

23. Document control

Version Date Author Changes
v1.1 2026-07-12 Verivius (sample) Added step-by-step display procedure, record fields, register links, training controls and related reading.
v1 2026-06-10 Verivius (sample) Conformed new cross-cutting draft to the Verivius policy standard.

This sample policy template was issued by Verivius. It is a template, not a substitute for legal advice or the tenant's own policy-development process. Where this template and live law or regulator guidance diverge, the live source wins.

What good looks like here

Written from an ex-CQC inspector's chair, but the point is safe, well-led care your team can stand behind. Each row shows what strong evidence looks like, what thin evidence looks like, and where the expectation comes from.

A rating on the wall and on a website is often the only regulatory information a person or a relative ever sees, and they usually see it at the worst possible moment: choosing a service during a hospital discharge, after a fall, or when a family arrangement has broken down overnight. Nobody in that position rings the provider to ask whether the poster is still current. So a display that is stale, tucked into a staff corridor, or worded so that a strapline covers locations it does not apply to means somebody makes a placement decision on information the provider already knows is out of date. The multi-location and acquisition cases are where this goes wrong quietly: a group site page carrying the strongest rating in the brand across every location, or a previous owner's badge left up after a takeover, both tell a family something about the service that is not true of the care they are about to receive. Keeping the current rating up while a review of rating is outstanding matters for the same reason, because taking it down leaves the person with nothing to judge by at exactly the moment they are deciding. The evidence trail here is really a test of whether the leadership team knows what its own public-facing information says, which is why a display record with dated photographs, page screenshots and a named owner for each website is worth more than an annual tick.

  1. The current rating is displayed conspicuously where service users can see it, at each premises and on every website, legible and showing the date CQC gave it.

    Strong evidence: Premises and website display records (sections 9, 10 and 17), including the photograph of the premises display and screenshots of the published website page, showing the rating date and which provider, location or activity it relates to (Reg 20A(2) and (7)).

    Weak evidence: The file holds one photograph of a poster with no note of where in the building it hangs, and it turns out to be a staff corridor or the back office rather than a place people using the service pass through. There is nothing at all for the principal place of business, which head office assumed was covered by the location posters. Website evidence is a link to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) page instead of a screenshot of the published page, so nothing shows the rating date, the CQC website address and the route to the published assessment, or which provider, location or regulated activity the rating relates to.

    A legal duty. This comes from legislation that applies to your service, so meeting it is not optional. The exact provision is cited beneath the badge.

    Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, reg 20A(2)

  2. When CQC publishes a new rating, premises and website displays are updated within the 21-calendar-day deadline the policy sets and the superseded rating is removed, not left showing an old rating.

    Strong evidence: The rating-change record (sections 7 step 7, 11 and 17) capturing the CQC publication date, the date each display was updated and removal of superseded graphics.

    Weak evidence: The rating-change record notes the date the display was updated but not the date CQC published the rating, so the 21 calendar days CQC guidance allows cannot be shown to have been met. The premises poster is swapped but the superseded rating graphic is still live in a website footer, a booking page or a third-party directory profile, and no removal step was recorded.

    What the regulator expects to see. Not a law in itself, but CQC judges you against it, so an inspector will look for it and expect a reason where you depart from it.

  3. Every location's actual rating is shown, with lower-rated locations not omitted and no out-of-context or promotional wording that misleads about the rating.

    Strong evidence: The website and marketing checks (sections 10 and 15) confirming each location page shows its relevant rating and that old brochures, directory profiles or graphics are corrected or removed.

    Weak evidence: The evidence is a homepage screenshot only, with individual location pages never opened, so a lower-rated site is quietly missing from the checks. Marketing sign-off reads "website reviewed, all fine" with no per-location list, and a strapline such as "Rated Good by CQC" runs across the whole site while only one of several locations holds that rating, leaving nothing to show which premises or activity each rating actually relates to.

    What the regulator expects to see. Not a law in itself, but CQC judges you against it, so an inspector will look for it and expect a reason where you depart from it.

  4. A rating that is subject to a review request is still displayed, not taken down while contested, with any explanatory note that does not obscure or dilute it.

    Strong evidence: The review-request note in the display record (sections 12 and 17) alongside the still-displayed current published rating.

    Weak evidence: There is no entry in the display record at all for the period a review of rating was outstanding, so it cannot be shown the published rating stayed up. Or the note has grown from a short factual line into a paragraph of rebuttal placed above the rating, or the record shows the rating taken down and replaced with a holding message such as "awaiting review outcome".

    What the regulator expects to see. Not a law in itself, but CQC judges you against it, so an inspector will look for it and expect a reason where you depart from it.

  5. Inherited or previous-provider ratings are labelled as such, not passed off as the current provider's own award.

    Strong evidence: The inherited-rating decision in the record (sections 13 and 17) making clear what belongs to the current provider and what to the previous one, checked against the live CQC page.

    Weak evidence: After an acquisition the record simply says "rating displayed" with no decision recorded on whose award it is. The website carries the previous owner's badge and rating date with nothing to say the current provider has not yet been assessed, and there is no note of a check against the live CQC page for the location.

    What the regulator expects to see. Not a law in itself, but CQC judges you against it, so an inspector will look for it and expect a reason where you depart from it.

  6. Rating display is re-checked after each CQC publication, website change or acquisition and at least annually, not assumed to be still correct.

    Strong evidence: The audit record (sections 16 and 17) covering premises, website, provider and location pages and marketing material, with any late or unclear display logged in the risk register and improvement-actions register.

    Weak evidence: A single annual line in the audit log reading "ratings checked, compliant", with no separate sign-off for premises, principal place of business, provider page, each location page and marketing material. Nothing shows a re-check was triggered by the website rebuild, the new location or the change of ownership, and no late or unclear display has ever reached the risk register or improvement-actions register.

    Our recommended baseline. Not a legal or regulatory requirement, but a sensible standard we suggest where the rules leave the detail to you. Adapt it to your service.

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Last verified 20 July 2026

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Last reviewed 10 June 2026