CQC position summary · prepared for Visiting Angels UK
Thirty-five territories on one register — and CQC has never inspected twenty-three of them
Built from the live CQC record of the Visiting Angels network — the master franchise’s own registrations and every franchisee territory trading under the brand — not the six shifts from the guide you downloaded. Those apply the same way to every provider; this is what they do to a 35-territory network specifically.
The 30-second read
PositionAll 12 rated territories hold Good — zero Requires improvement anywhere on the network. But 23 of 35 registered territories have never been inspected at all.
The anchorOnly the Sheffield flagship — the master franchise’s own operation — has been assessed under the new framework (April 2026): Good overall, with Well-led rated Requires improvement inside it.
The exposure21 territories registered since January 2023 are all waiting on a first inspection — five arrived in 2026 alone — and 4 rated territories still trade on 2021-era evidence.
The 30 minutesWe can see the register-level pattern. We can’t see which franchisees are ready for the first visit that pattern says is coming — that’s the call.
Book the 30-minute walkthrough
The network’s published position
Thirty-five locations trade under the Visiting Angels name in Care Quality Commission’s Adult Social Care register — 32 separate registered providers, from the master franchise’s Sheffield flagship to franchisees registered this summer. Every figure below is the live record on cqc.org.uk, checked 10 August 2026.
Registered territories
35
32 separate registered providers under one brand
Rated Good (of rated)
12 / 12
zero Outstanding, zero Requires improvement overall
Never inspected
23
66% of the register; the national homecare figure is 40%
Under enforcement
0
no enforcement on any assessment on record
| Territory | Provider | Current rating | Last rated visit | What it means |
|---|
Visiting Angels Care, Sheffield
master-franchise flagship |
Visiting Angels Care Limited |
Good · 69% |
23 Apr 2026 (0.3y) |
The network’s only new-framework assessment — Well-led rated Requires improvement inside an overall Good; see below |
North Yorkshire & West
Harrogate |
franchisee (Buttercup Home Care Ltd) |
Good |
20 Dec 2024 (1.6y) |
The only other rating on the network newer than 2024 |
10 further rated territories
Ealing to Warwickshire |
10 separate franchisees |
All Good |
2021–2023 |
None re-assessed since November 2023; four rest on 2021-era inspections now 4.7–5.2 years old |
23 territories, never inspected
Burton & Derby to Cannock |
21 franchisees + the master’s own Devon & Cornwall and West Midlands |
Not yet rated |
— |
21 registered since January 2023, five in 2026 alone; the oldest has waited since September 2020 |
The network’s only new-framework score
Sheffield · 69%
against a 71.3% national average for homecare services scored under the new framework (n = 2,189); 21.3% of that cohort rates below Good
The longest wait
5.9 years
Burton & Derby registered September 2020 and still awaits a first inspection — while the newest five territories arrived in 2026
What’s changing under you
The framework you downloaded the guide about is already live — pilots have been running since June 2026, with more than 9,000 reports targeted by September and full rollout by the end of the year. The six shifts from that guide are the rules the network’s 23 first inspections will be scored against.
Judged, not scored
Continuous assessment
Single set of standards
Local, risk-based scheduling
People's experience weighted higher
Provider self-assurance data
The pattern
Two-thirds of the Visiting Angels register has no inspection history at all — well above the homecare norm — and the one territory tested under the new Single Assessment Framework is the master franchise’s own flagship. That makes the flagship’s April result the closest thing the network has to a preview of the other 34.
Visiting Angels — never inspected
66%
National homecare register
40%
Share of registered locations never assessed: 23 of 35 on the network, against 6,266 of 15,574 community-based adult social care locations nationally.
| Key question | Flagship, Apr 2026 | What the inspectors scored |
|---|
| Safe | Good |
6 of 8 statements at Good; Involving people to manage risks and Medicines optimisation both scored 2 of 4 |
| Effective | Good |
Assessing needs scored 2 — delays getting new clients’ records onto the care system |
| Caring | Good |
All five statements at Good — the strongest key question on the report |
| Responsive | Good |
Planning for the future scored 2 — gaps in end-of-life documentation |
| Well-led | Requires improvement |
4 of 8 scored statements at 2 — shared culture, leadership, freedom to speak up, and governance |
This is the operation that trains and onboards the other 34 territories — and Well-led is the key question a first assessment leans on hardest when a service has no track record to read.
This table is most of what we'd walk through live — the 30-minute walkthrough starts from it.
Show what inspectors recorded at the Sheffield flagship · 2 strengths · 2 watch items
□ STRENGTH
Workforce wellbeing and enablement. Inspectors recorded a clinical psychologist engaged to understand the impact of the care role, a staff wellbeing programme with confidential counselling, and an annual local music festival celebrating paid and unpaid carers.
□ STRENGTH
Treating people as individuals. The report notes the no-uniform policy — so people speak to the person, not the uniform — and a person supported from 24-hour care into the community with improved health and wellbeing.
⚠ WATCH
Governance, management and sustainability (scored 2). Audits had not consistently identified gaps in care and medication records; the report notes variability in the quality of care records and delays uploading information.
⚠ WATCH
Freedom to speak up (scored 2). Some staff reported that feedback on care and service delivery was not consistently listened to or acted upon, though all felt able to raise safety concerns.
The honest blind spot. We can see the register and the pattern in it — a brand whose every published rating is Good, whose only new-framework test caught Well-led, and whose register is now two-thirds territories with no inspection history at all. What we can’t see from outside is where each of those 23 franchisees currently sits against the quality statements their first visit will score, or how much of the flagship’s own fix has made it into the onboarding playbook. That’s the gap the call closes.
What we’d work through together
Not a homework list — the agenda for the 30 minutes.
1. Which of the 23 uninspected territories a first visit is likely to reach soonesttime-sensitive
2. The four Well-led statements that caught the flagship — and whether the franchise playbook covers themtime-sensitive
3. The four territories on 2021-era ratings and what a re-assessment now scorestime-sensitive
4. What evidence a new territory needs on hand before its first visit landsongoing
5. Where franchisee outcomes data already exists versus lives in each owner’s headongoing
6. How people’s-experience evidence gets captured consistently across 35 territoriesongoing
Show what each item turns on
1
Which of the 23 uninspected territories a first visit is likely to reach soonest
Depends on registration age and local, risk-based scheduling — the oldest has waited since September 2020.
Priority
2
The four Well-led statements that caught the flagship — and whether the franchise playbook covers them
Depends on how culture, speak-up and governance evidence is built into onboarding, not just operations.
Priority
3
The four territories on 2021-era ratings and what a re-assessment now scores
Depends on what has changed in each territory since its last rated visit — the published rating alone doesn’t say.
Priority
4
What evidence a new territory needs on hand before its first visit lands
Depends on what each franchisee’s current records already cover versus assume.
Ongoing
5
Where franchisee outcomes data already exists versus lives in each owner’s head
Depends on which systems each territory actually uses day to day.
Ongoing
6
How people’s-experience evidence gets captured consistently across 35 territories
Depends on what each territory currently does when a client or relative raises something.
Ongoing
Inspection-ready before the inspector, across thirty-five territories
Twenty-three territories have never met an inspector, and under the new framework first visits are scheduled locally, by risk — not a date a franchisee gets to pick. GreenM connects fragmented evidence across a group so it reads cleanly against the new quality statements, rather than assembled the week a visit is confirmed.
In 30 minutes: the six items above, narrowed to the three that matter first for the network.
