Finding
7,078 of England's 14,509 registered home care agencies, 48.8%, have no website on the CQC register, and 27,551 of all 57,082 registered care services, 48.3%, are missing one, on the CQC care directory file dated 26 August 2026.
Source: Whito, whito.co.uk/research/add-website-cqc-profile, August 2026. Free to quote with a link to this page.
Last Updated on September 5, 2026
Your CQC profile page is the most syndicated listing your care business has. It feeds the NHS service finder, council directories, comparison sites and the systems behind AI assistants. And for 7,078 home care agencies in England, it carries no website at all. Getting yours on there is an administrative job, not a marketing project, and this page shows you exactly where the CQC says to do it.
The mistake: treating the register as red tape
Most providers think about their CQC record twice: at registration, and at inspection. Between those moments it sits untouched, because it feels like a compliance document.
It is not. The CQC is legally required to publish a profile page for every registered provider and every location, and the register is bulk-published under an open licence, which means other services ingest it. When your entry has no website, that blank is copied into every downstream directory a family checks. You can spend real money on marketing while the one listing you already own, the one with a regulator behind it, sends people nowhere.
We measured the scale of this in the Invisible Half study: 27,551 of England’s 57,082 registered care services, 48.3%, have no website on the register. In home care it is 7,078 agencies, 48.8%. And when we checked ten of the blanks by hand, several of those providers had perfectly good websites. The record was the problem, not the business.
Check your own entry first, it takes two minutes
Search your business name at cqc.org.uk, or go straight to cqc.org.uk/location/ followed by your location ID, which starts with a 1 and a dash and is on your registration certificate. Every Whito care listing also links its provider’s CQC record directly.
The CQC’s own guidance explains that visitors “can select tabs to see your registration information and contact details”. Look at what a family actually sees there: address, phone, and the website field.
If it is empty, or it points at a site you no longer use, that blank or stale link is what every downstream service holds for you.
How to get it fixed, using the routes the CQC itself names
Here is the part most guides get wrong, so it is worth being precise. As at the end of August 2026, the CQC provider portal is not a general profile editor. The CQC’s portal guidance, last updated 29 July 2026, says you can use it to “submit some notifications and manage some aspects of your registration”, and lists the notification types it handles. Updating the website shown on your profile is not among them.
For profile page corrections, the CQC’s guidance on profile pages, last updated 5 February 2026, gives one instruction:
One short email to enquiries@cqc.org.uk from an address the CQC holds for your registration. Include your provider name, your location ID, and the website address you want shown. Ask for the website field on your profile page to be added or corrected. The CQC also runs an online contact form, a webchat when a team member is available, and a phone line, 03000 616161, open Monday to Friday 8.30am to 5.30pm.
If the change is part of your registration, for example details submitted when you registered, the CQC’s guidance notes that changes appear on the website “once we generate your amended certificate”, so registration level changes follow the registration process rather than a quick edit. For the website field on its own, the enquiries route above is the one the CQC names.
One caution from the same guidance. The CQC publishes all business and location addresses, including a home address used as a business address. If publishing your address would put people who use your service at risk, the CQC says you must email enquiries@cqc.org.uk to discuss confidentiality. Do that before you tidy anything else.
Make the link worth following
Once the register points at your site, the site has one job: let a family confirm you are real, registered and reachable in under a minute. That means your CQC location ID and registered company details visible on the site, the areas you cover stated plainly, and a phone number that gets answered. If you want to know how your site reads to search engines and AI assistants, the free Whito visibility check runs seventeen checks in about twenty seconds, with no email asked for.
The numbers, by service type
From the CQC care directory file dated 26 August 2026. The full counts, including all 151 local authorities, are in the study and its downloadable CSV.
| Service type | Services | No website on the register |
|---|---|---|
| Dentists | 12,282 | 7,698 (62.7%) |
| Supported living | 5,014 | 2,511 (50.1%) |
| Home care agencies | 14,509 | 7,078 (48.8%) |
| Residential homes | 10,426 | 4,762 (45.7%) |
| GP practices | 18,580 | 6,827 (36.7%) |
| Hospitals | 782 | 154 (19.7%) |
The sharp takeaway
Before you spend another pound making your care business easier to find, spend one email making sure the register that already describes you points anywhere at all. Half the sector has not.
Common questions
How do I change the website shown on my CQC profile page?
The CQC names one route for profile page information: contact enquiries@cqc.org.uk. Send your provider name, your location ID and the website address you want shown, from an email address the CQC holds for your registration. The CQC also runs an online contact form, webchat and a phone line on 03000 616161.
Can I update my website through the CQC provider portal?
Not as at August 2026. The CQC describes the portal as a way to submit some notifications and manage some aspects of your registration, and its list of portal functions does not include editing the contact details shown on your profile. Portal accounts are limited to people holding a CQC registered role: a nominated individual, responsible individual, registered manager or main partner.
Why does my CQC entry matter if I already have a website?
Because the register is bulk published under an open licence and ingested by the NHS service finder, council directories, comparison sites and AI assistants. If the register holds no website for you, that blank is what those services hold too, however good your own site is.
How many care providers are affected?
On the CQC care directory file dated 26 August 2026, 27,551 of 57,082 registered services in England, 48.3%, had no website recorded, including 7,078 home care agencies. The counts and method are published in full in the Whito study.
Does a blank website field mean a provider has no website?
No. When Whito checked ten home care agencies drawn at random from the blanks, several had working websites that the register simply did not hold. A blank is missing data, not a fact about the business.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
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