How to Display Your CQC Rating on Your Website

Every health and social care provider with a Care Quality Commission rating has to show that rating on its website as well as at its premises. The duty comes from regulation 20A, which sets out what must appear on the page, how it should be presented and which ratings count. Failing to comply is an offence that CQC can deal with through a fixed penalty or a prosecution, so the rating display deserves the same care as any other part of digital marketing for CQC registered care providers.

The rules themselves are short and CQC supplies a widget that handles most of the work. Problems usually come from the details, such as a rating placed where nobody looks, a widget that silently fails to load or a second website that was never updated. The sections below cover the legal requirement, the deadline after a new report, where the rating should sit, how to add the widget to a WordPress website and what CQC can do when a rating is missing.

What Regulation 20A Requires on Your Website

Regulation 20A requires every website run by or for a rated provider to show the CQC website address, a link to the place on that website where the latest assessment can be read and the most recent rating. The full wording sits in regulation 20A of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, which was inserted in April 2015 and also covers the signs that must be displayed at each premises.

The regulation adds three conditions that apply to anything shown on a website. It must be legible, it must be displayed conspicuously in a place that people using the service can reach and each rating must show the date CQC gave it. Where a provider has ratings for different premises or activities, the website has to make clear which rating relates to which.

CQC’s own guidance on regulation 20A explains that the duty applies to every organisation rated outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate, including those rated before 1 April 2015. In every case the rating to display is the most recent one, so an older rating left on a page after a new report does not meet the requirement.

Legibility is also where the rating display overlaps with wider accessibility work. A rating that relies on a small image with no text alternative is harder for some visitors to read, which is one reason to treat it as part of digital accessibility for healthcare websites rather than a box to tick.

Which Providers and Websites the Rule Covers

The rule covers any provider that has received an overall quality rating after a CQC inspection, on every website where that provider describes its services. CQC’s display guidance also lists service types it does not rate, including primary dental services, children’s homes and medical laboratories, which receive a judgement on whether they meet the regulations instead.

A service that has not been inspected yet has nothing to display either. To check where a service stands, search for it on the CQC website and open its location page, which shows the current rating and the date of the report. Each provider also has a provider page listing every location it runs. Some providers hold a provider level rating as well as ratings for each location.

The promotional graphics for providers are optional and sit alongside the legal duty rather than replacing it. CQC asks registered providers to use those official graphics to show they are regulated, rather than the CQC logo on its own.

The wording of the regulation reaches further than the main website. It applies to every website maintained by or on behalf of the provider, so a group website and a separate website for an individual service both need checking where they describe that service. CQC’s display page for residential care homes says the current rating must appear on every website you operate that describes the services you deliver.

Ownership changes add one more case. When a provider takes over an existing location, the CQC website shows that location’s regulatory history, but the new provider does not legally have to display a rating awarded to the previous provider. CQC’s guidance on continuation of regulatory history encourages providers to show it. Any inherited rating that is displayed must make clear that it was awarded to the previous provider.

How Long You Have to Update Your Website After a New Report

A new rating must appear on your website and on posters at your premises no later than 21 calendar days after CQC publishes it on its own website. CQC’s page on how providers must display ratings also makes clear that the deadline still applies if you have asked for a review of the rating.

A provider that has requested a review can add a note to the display explaining that, provided the rating itself stays clear and conspicuous. Providers rated inadequate or requires improvement are encouraged to show what they are doing to improve alongside the rating, as long as the extra information does not detract from it.

The CQC widget removes most of this risk because it updates itself when a rating changes. Websites that use a custom image or a hand typed rating need a named person who checks the CQC profile page whenever an inspection takes place and updates every affected page within the deadline.

Group websites need extra care here, since a new rating for one location may need to appear on the group website, the location’s own page and any separate website that describes the same service. A simple list of every page that carries a rating makes the update quicker and easier to check.

Where to Place the Rating on Your Website

The rating should sit on a permanent page that the public visits often, in a conspicuous position that makes clear which service it relates to. CQC’s display guidance for each service type, such as the page for GP practices, says the page should be reachable through the main website navigation and suggests the main homepage or appropriate landing pages.

In practice that means the homepage for a single service and each location page for a provider that runs several services. A rating that only appears on a page buried several clicks deep, or inside a downloadable document, is hard to describe as conspicuous. The same thinking about what visitors see first runs through good healthcare web design, where trust signals belong where people make their decisions.

Multi location providers have one more thing to check. Each location page should show the rating for that location, while the provider rating, where there is one, belongs on the pages that describe the organisation as a whole.

How to Get and Use the CQC Ratings Widget

The CQC ratings widget is a short piece of code, provided on your CQC profile, that pulls your current rating from the CQC system and shows it on your website with a link to your full report. CQC’s guidance on how to use the CQC widget and posters recommends it because it displays all the information the regulation requires and updates automatically when your rating changes.

The code lives on a page of your CQC profile called ratings posters and widgets, which also holds a preview of the widget and the posters to download. The steps below take you from finding that page to checking the widget on the live website.

The widget comes with conditions. CQC’s widget terms and conditions say it must not be modified in any way, must not be used to mislead people and must not have anything placed around it that implies CQC endorses your service.

Those terms rule out restyling the widget to match a brand palette or cropping out part of it. A widget that looks out of place is still the compliant choice. A custom display is the route for providers who need full control over the design.

Adding the CQC Widget to a WordPress Website

On a WordPress website the widget goes into a Custom HTML block on each page that needs it, or into the theme template so it appears on every location page automatically. The WordPress documentation for the Custom HTML block explains how to add one, either from the block inserter or by typing /html in a new paragraph block.

The account that adds the code matters. The same documentation notes that users without the unfiltered_html capability, such as contributors, have script tags stripped from the block when the post is saved, which removes the widget from the page.

The roles and capabilities documentation adds that on a WordPress Multisite network only Super Admins have unfiltered_html, so a care group running each home as a subsite may find that local editors cannot add the widget at all. Building the widget into the location page template avoids that problem and keeps the placement consistent across every location.

When the widget does not appear on a WordPress website, the cause is often code that blocks or rewrites scripts. CQC’s widget troubleshooting guidance covers the common causes, from a typing error in the code to a surrounding element hidden with CSS.

Security headers deserve a specific check on websites that have been hardened. A Content Security Policy controls which domains a page can load scripts from. The script source directive blocks any script from a domain that is not on its list. The CQC widget loads its script and styles from cqc.org.uk, so that domain has to be allowed.

Performance plugins that combine, defer or delay JavaScript can also stop the widget loading, so exclude the CQC script from those settings and test again after every plugin update. Teams without a developer to hand can pass this kind of check to ongoing WordPress support, since an update can break the widget long after it was first added.

Displaying Your Rating Without the Widget

You do not have to use the CQC widget, but a display you create yourself must carry the same information and you have to keep it up to date by hand. CQC lists what a custom website display must include.

• The name of the rated service
• Every provider and premises rating, which can sit on separate pages for separate premises
• The date the inspection report was published
• The CQC website address, www.cqc.org.uk
• A link to your profile page on the CQC website, where the assessment and ratings can be read

CQC offers PowerPoint templates for creating a ratings image, which you then upload to your website and link to the relevant CQC profile page. The same page notes that CQC is still developing a way to create posters automatically for services assessed under its newer approach, so those providers may need the templates for their premises posters too.

The CQC logo is a registered trade mark and can only be used as part of a display showing your organisation’s ratings. A ratings image should also have a text alternative that states the rating and the date, so visitors using screen readers get the same information as everyone else.

What Happens If Your Rating Is Not Displayed

Failing to display a rating as regulation 20A requires is an offence that CQC can deal with through a fixed penalty notice or a prosecution. CQC’s page on how it enforces the regulation says it may take enforcement action if a rating is not displayed at all, or if it is unclear or inconspicuous and the provider refuses to take action.

The offence itself is set out in regulation 22 and the penalty in regulation 23, which makes a breach of regulation 20A punishable on summary conviction by a fine not exceeding level 2 on the standard scale. CQC’s regulation 20A guidance adds that it can move directly to prosecution without first serving a warning notice.

Breaching regulation 20A is also listed as a fixed penalty offence in Schedule 5 of the same regulations, which means CQC can deal with a breach through a fixed penalty notice. CQC says its response will be proportionate to the circumstances of each case and follows its enforcement policy.

Displaying the wrong rating carries its own risk. CQC says it may take action against a provider that displays false or misleading ratings information, which is why an inherited or outdated rating needs the same attention as a missing one.

Checking Your Rating Display Before an Inspection

A rating display is worth checking on a fixed schedule rather than only after a new report, because themes, plugins and page edits can remove it without anyone noticing. A quick review every few months and straight after any website update catches most problems before an inspector or a family member does.

Start from the CQC website rather than your own, since the location and provider pages there show every rating that has to appear. Then work through each website that describes the service and confirm the points below.

• The current rating and its date appear on the homepage or each location page
• The rating is visible without scrolling and is reachable from the main navigation
• The link opens the correct CQC profile page for that service
• Any provider rating appears as well as the location ratings
• Group websites and separate service websites show the same current rating
• The widget still loads after the latest theme and plugin updates

Problems found in a check like this are usually quick to fix. The same review often turns up broken links or outdated pages elsewhere on the website. Folding the rating check into regular WordPress maintenance and security work keeps it from depending on one person’s memory.

Priority Pixels has worked with NHS Trusts and private healthcare providers since 2016. Whoever looks after the website, the aim is a rating that visitors can find in seconds, that matches the CQC profile and that updates within the deadline when a new report is published.