Methodology
How we rank home care agencies
Ranked lists on Match With Care use the same published method. They are not an unqualified “best in the UK” claim. We compare like-for-like CQC-registered home care agencies, show the evidence on the page, and keep Match With Care out of the ranking because we are not CQC-registered as a care provider.
Who is eligible
- Registered CQC locations whose directory kind is a home care agency.
- A published CQC overall rating of Outstanding, Good, or Requires improvement.
- Inadequate agencies are excluded.
- Unrated or newly registered agencies appear in a separate “not yet rated” list, never in the ranking.
- A local ranking page is indexed only if at least 5 rated agencies are in the local authority, and only for London plus selected Surrey, Hertfordshire and Kent areas.
How the score is built
Higher scores rank first. Ties break on the more recent inspection date, then the agency name.
- CQC Outstanding
- 100 points
- CQC Good
- 60 points
- CQC Requires improvement
- 20 points
- Inspection older than 4 years, or missing
- −15 points
- Listed specialism matches the page niche
- +10 points
- Website-checked published price
- +5 points
- Website-checked live-in offer
- +5 points
Data sources and refresh
- CQC directory locations CSV and HSCA active locations file, synced weekly on Mondays. See Using CQC data.
- Website-checked live-in and price facts in
lib/directory/provider-facts.json, each with a source URL and checked-on date. These are reviewed in a pull request. - Every ranked table shows the CQC rating, last inspection date, CQC link, and a checked-on date.
Why Match With Care is not ranked
Match With Care is a managed introductory marketplace. Introductory services are not CQC-registered as care providers, so we cannot be scored on CQC ratings. Where we appear, it is a labelled box: “Our service. Not CQC-registered, different model,” as a “best for choosing and paying your carer directly” pick, backed by published carer rates on this site. It is never number one in the agency list. Introductory platforms, including ours, are compared in a separate scored list: home care platforms compared.
Corrections
If a rating, inspection date, or website-checked fact is wrong, email hello@matchwithcare.com with the CQC location ID and the source page. We update CQC rows on the next directory sync, and website facts when the source is checked.
Related: home care agency rankings and independent carers in London.