Over 40% of registered care homes have not received a full CQC inspection since February 2021, with some local authority areas seeing rates above 80%.

New data has revealed that 5,429 of England's 13,475 registered care homes — more than 40% — had not received a full Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection since the end of February 2021, as of 1 March 2026.

The figures were uncovered by Dr Kevin Groombridge, chief executive of Care Inspections UK and lead developer of the new International Standard for Adult Social Care (ISO 25557:2026).

The backlog is unevenly distributed across the country. The South East has the highest total number of uninspected homes at 1,136 out of 2,543, while the West Midlands and East of England both show around 45% of homes going without a full inspection. London fares best at 29%.

At local authority level, the picture is starker still: Windsor and Maidenhead has 87% of homes without a recent inspection, followed by Tower Hamlets at 83% and Wokingham at 81%.

Dr Groombridge called for ‘radical reform, now’, questioning whether the CQC is fit to deliver its mandate. ‘How can families feel confident that their loved ones are receiving the care they deserve if inspections are not taking place regularly?’ he said, adding that delays in publishing reports – sometimes running to months – further undermine transparency.

The CQC's Chris Badger, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care, acknowledged the need to increase assessment rates and said the organisation is ‘on track to meet assessment targets as agreed with the Department of Health and Social Care.’ He added that the CQC continuously monitors services between inspections to focus resources on the highest-risk providers.