End of year update from our Chief Inspectors

In our last blog of the year, we take a reflective look back at 2025 and hear from our 4 new chief inspectors about the work that has been done and their ambitions for 2026.

Dr Toli Onon, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, highlights the challenges faced by people working in hospitals over the winter months.

Chris Badger, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care, describes the work we've done to increase the number of adult social care inspections so providers, commissioners, the public and, most importantly, the people who use these services are assured of the quality of care.

Professor Bola Owolabi, Chief Inspector of Primary Care and Community Services, writes about the challenges facing this sector. Bola describes how rising demand, workforce shortages, and limited funding are having a huge impact on access to services and are potentially slowing progress towards more preventative, community-based care.

Chris Dzikiti, Interim Chief Inspector of Mental Health, discusses how we've used our independent voice to highlight the issues people face when accessing mental health care. Chris also highlights work we've done for communities who face persistent inequalities in mental health care.

• Blog: An end of year message from our chief inspectors

Find out what people think of your local NHS trust's maternity services

We asked nearly 17,000 women and people who used NHS maternity services in 2025 about their experience of care.

Nationally, we found several areas where people are reporting a better experience – particularly in relation to communication with staff and mental health support.

However, despite this positive trajectory, the survey results also show that for some, issues around access to advice and support, feeling listened to when they had concerns, and being left alone at a time when it worried them continue to have a negative impact.

We will use the survey results to build on our understanding of the risk and quality of services. NHS trusts, and those who commission services, will use the results to identify and make the changes they need to improve the experience of people who use their services.

• Find the survey results for your local NHS trust
• Press release: National Survey shows some improvement in maternity care experiences, but that further work is needed to ensure safe high-quality care for all
• 2025 Maternity survey
• Other NHS patient experience surveys

Join us! Work for CQC

CQC staff have a wide range of skills and work across many disciplines.

Current vacancies include:

• Market Oversight Manager
• Director of IT Operations
• Second Opinion Appointed Doctor

Benefits include generous leave entitlement, NHS or Nest pension schemes and a wide range of employee discounts.

Most roles offer flexible locations with the choice to be home-based. See the individual job listings for more information.

• Browse our current vacancies
• Working at CQC

New local authority assessments published

We publish reports that look at how local authorities are meeting their responsibilities to make sure people have access to adult social care and support.

Recent reports look at:

• Norfolk County Council
• London Borough of Redbridge
• City of York Council
• Brighton & Hove City Council

Each report looks at 9 areas spread across 4 themes to check how well each authority is meeting its responsibilities. Areas are given a score out of 1 to 4. A score of 1 is given when evidence shows significant shortfalls for this area, and 4 when evidence shows an exceptional standard is being met.

• Local authority assessment reports

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