# What a care rating can hide

> A current label, an old inspection and no location-level rating are three different signals.

- Category: NHS
- Canonical: [https://londongraph.com/story/what-a-care-rating-can-hide](https://londongraph.com/story/what-a-care-rating-can-hide)
- Machine-readable record: [https://londongraph.com/data/story/what-a-care-rating-can-hide](https://londongraph.com/data/story/what-a-care-rating-can-hide)
- Latest contributing release: 2026-08-04T08:27:00.007Z

CQC's register makes care quality visible, but a single headline colour can conceal inspection age, service type and the absence of a location-level overall judgement. This story keeps those dimensions separate and shows the denominator behind borough percentages.

## Evidence

### Latest register snapshot

Registered London locations in each current location-level overall rating band.

- Current computed headline: 2026-08-04 — 5,854 registered services (2026-08-04)
- 2026-08-04: 3,222 registered services
- Release: 2026-08-04
- Dataset: `cqc-rating-mix`
- Explore: [the-state-of-londons-care](https://londongraph.com/g/the-state-of-londons-care)

### Inspection age

Registered services grouped by how long ago their latest published inspection took place.

- The dataset is not available on this deployment; no value is substituted.
- Dataset: `cqc-inspection-age`
- Explore: [where-london-is-cared-for](https://londongraph.com/g/where-london-is-cared-for)

### Service type and rating

Broad primary service type crossed with the current location-level rating.

- The dataset is not available on this deployment; no value is substituted.
- Dataset: `cqc-service-ratings`
- Explore: [where-london-is-cared-for](https://londongraph.com/g/where-london-is-cared-for)

### Borough rated share

Good or Outstanding locations as a percentage of locations with a published overall rating.

- Current computed headline: Sutton — 98.92 % of rated locations (2026-08-04)
- London median: 93.88 % of rated locations
- Release: 2026-08-04
- Dataset: `cqc-ratings-by-borough`
- Explore: [how-good-is-care-where-you-live](https://londongraph.com/g/how-good-is-care-where-you-live)

## Interpretation

No location-level overall rating is not a fifth quality band and can include multi-service locations rated below location level. Ratings are point-in-time judgements, not live monitoring.

Every numerical claim is computed from the current versioned datasets at render time. Missing data is reported as missing rather than replaced.

## Sources

- [Care Quality Commission](https://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/transparency/using-cqc-data)