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Care quality by town: where every home is rated Good or better

By James Burfield, SEO consultant, Bath · Page updated · Care Quality Commission

61 English towns of 20,000+ people have four or more CQC-rated care homes and a clean sheet: every one rated Good or Outstanding. That is the regulator's judgment counted on true town boundaries, and this page refuses to melt it into a score.

CQC inspects and rates every registered care home and GP practice in England on a four-point scale. Those ratings are the one official answer to "is it good?" that exists at town level, so this page counts them exactly as published: no weighting, no adjustment for size or inspection age, and the caveats stated below. Across the towns this site measures, the regulator's current file yields 3,401 rated GP practices and 7,593 rated care homes; 442 of them hold Outstanding, and the clean-sheet towns below are where none falls short of Good.

Towns where every rated care home is Good or better

Four or more rated homes, none below Good, most Outstanding first:

#TownCountyCare homes ratedOutstanding
1YeovilSomerset122
2SwadlincoteDerbyshire102
3AthertonBorough of Wigan62
4FarehamHampshire231
5West BridgfordNottinghamshire151
6IslingtonGreater London151
7Whitley BayNorth Tyneside141
8New MiltonHampshire111
9Potters BarHertfordshire71
10Newark on TrentNottinghamshire71
11LeighBorough of Wigan71
12DurhamCounty Durham71
13WashingtonSunderland61
14RamsgateKent61
15OadbyLeicestershire61
16FavershamKent61
17CramlingtonNorthumberland61
18Bishop AucklandCounty Durham61
19AltrinchamTrafford61
20YateSouth Gloucestershire51
21PeterleeCounty Durham51
22HeanorDerbyshire51
23AbingdonOxfordshire51
24WindsorRoyal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead41
25Sunbury-on-ThamesSurrey41
26BillinghamStockton-on-Tees41
27GatesheadGateshead280
28Newton AbbotDevon130
29CambridgeCambridgeshire130
30SeahamCounty Durham120

Towns where every rated GP practice is Good or better

Three or more rated practices, none below Good:

#TownCountyGP practices ratedOutstanding
1BoltonBorough of Bolton373
2ExeterDevon143
3OldhamBorough of Oldham202
4WorthingWest Sussex82
5SolihullSolihull82
6MansfieldNottinghamshire72
7ChesterfieldDerbyshire72
8WallsendNorth Tyneside32
9SunderlandSunderland261
10GatesheadGateshead171
11SalfordCity and Borough of Salford161
12ReadingReading161
13CambridgeCambridgeshire161
14BournemouthBournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council151
15SouthportSefton121
16PooleBournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council111
17StockportBorough of Stockport101
18Newcastle under LymeStaffordshire101
19DoncasterDoncaster101
20DewsburyKirklees101
21BloxwichWalsall101
22BathBath and North East Somerset101
23LeighBorough of Wigan91
24DarlingtonDarlington91
25RotherhamRotherham81
26MiddletonBorough of Rochdale81
27Burton upon TrentStaffordshire81
28Barrow in FurnessCumbria81
29WashingtonSunderland71
30Royal Leamington SpaWarwickshire71

Source: the Care Quality Commission's latest published overall ratings (September 2026), located to ONS built-up areas by postcode. A rating dates from the location's last inspection and can be years old; unrated locations are excluded from both the counts and the clean-sheet test. England only. Each town's own page carries its full mix, including any Requires improvement or Inadequate ratings this page's tables would hide.

Common questions

Which towns have the best care homes?
The measured version: 61 English towns of 20,000+ people have four or more CQC-rated care homes with every single one rated Good or Outstanding. The table lists them with their Outstanding counts, which are CQC's judgments rather than any score of ours.
Which towns have the best GP practices?
252 towns have three or more rated practices, all of them Good or Outstanding. GP provision pressure is a separate question: each town's page shows patients-per-practice alongside the ratings, because a well-rated practice can still be a stretched one.
Why is there no care quality score per town?
Because combining Outstanding counts, home sizes and inspection ages into one number means choosing weights, and weights are opinions. CQC's ratings are the official judgment that exists; we count them on true town boundaries and stop there.
How current are these ratings?
They are the latest overall judgments in CQC's September 2026 publication, but each rating dates from that location's most recent inspection, which can be years old. Check the linked CQC register for any specific home or practice before deciding anything that matters.