Raising a Concern with the CQC About an NHS or Care Provider: What It Can Do, and How to Do It Well
An eLitigant guide. General information only — not legal advice.
In short
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates health and adult social care providers in England — it inspects, rates and can take enforcement action against them, but it does not investigate individual complaints or award personal remedies. Approach it with information of concern about a provider’s compliance — anchored to records and dates, naming the regulation engaged — and your submission goes where it can do the most good. Your personal remedy lives with the provider’s own complaints process, the Ombudsman or, for compensation, a legal claim.
Chris prepares your complaint document to a professional standard — from your own facts and your own documents.
When something goes seriously wrong with NHS or social care, most people think first of complaining to the provider, and then perhaps to the Ombudsman. Fewer people realise there is a third door: the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England. Used correctly, it is a powerful one — but it works completely differently from a complaint, and knowing the difference is the whole game.
What the CQC is — and is not
The CQC regulates providers: hospital trusts, care homes, GP practices, and other registered services. It inspects them, rates them, and can take enforcement action against them — from warning notices and conditions on registration through to criminal prosecution for the most serious breaches of the regulations.
What it does not do is investigate individual complaints or award personal remedies. If you send the CQC your story, it will not adjudicate it, order an apology to you, or arrange compensation. It records what you send as information of concern, and that information helps it decide when, where and what to inspect — and whether a provider has breached the regulations it enforces.
That is not a weakness. It means the right way to approach the CQC is not “please resolve my complaint” but “here is information you should have about this provider’s compliance”. Frame it that way and your submission goes straight to where it can do the most good.
The duty of candour: the regulation families most often need
One regulation matters more than any other when care has gone wrong and the provider has not been open about it: Regulation 20 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 — the statutory duty of candour. It requires providers, when a “notifiable safety incident” occurs, to tell the person (or their family) what happened, in person and then in writing, with an account of the facts, the enquiries being made, their results, and an apology.
The CQC enforces this duty directly. It can prosecute a provider for breaching it. So if an incident was never disclosed, never followed up in writing, or never properly investigated, that is not just a grievance — it is potentially a regulatory breach, and the CQC is the body with the power to act on it.
How to raise a concern
There are three routes, all free: the online Give Feedback on Care service on the CQC website; email to the CQC’s national enquiries address; or telephone to its National Customer Service Centre. For anything documentary, email is usually best, because you can attach your evidence.
A strong submission has four features:
- It identifies the registered provider precisely — the trust or company, not an individual. The CQC judges the registered organisation, not particular professionals.
- It is documentary. Point to records, dates and the provider’s own written responses. A regulator acts on what can be evidenced, not on what can only be asserted.
- It states what regulation is engaged and why — briefly. If the concern is about openness after an incident, say so and say what was never provided.
- It asks for the right thing: consideration under the CQC’s enforcement policy — not a personal remedy, which the CQC cannot give.
Keep the tone factual and calm. Avoid allegations about individuals or motives; describe what the records show and let the regulator draw its conclusions.
What happens next
You will receive an automated acknowledgment with a reference number — keep it and quote it in any future contact. The CQC may contact you to find out more, or it may act on the information without further contact; it does not report back to you in the way a complaints body would. That can feel unsatisfying, but remember the division of labour: the CQC’s job is the provider’s compliance. Your personal remedy — the explanation, the apology, any financial redress — lives with the provider’s own complaints process, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, or, for compensation, a legal claim.
Can you use the CQC alongside other routes?
Yes — and often you should. A CQC concern, an Ombudsman complaint and even legal proceedings ask different questions of the same facts, and none blocks the others. The one discipline that matters is honesty: tell each body about the others, plainly and once. Nothing damages credibility like a parallel process discovered rather than disclosed.
Quick checklist
- Provider identified by its registered name
- Facts set out with dates, anchored to documents
- The relevant regulation named, briefly
- The ask: consideration under the enforcement policy
- No allegations against individuals
- Other processes disclosed
- Reference number recorded on receipt
eLitigant helps litigants in person prepare court and complaint documents to a professional standard.
Related guides: Taking an NHS complaint to the Ombudsman (PHSO) · How to make a Financial Ombudsman (FOS) complaint · Energy Ombudsman complaint guide