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Home care and supported living in South East, in numbers

2,097 providers and 2,560 home care and supported living locations in South East, 22% below Good on Well-led, 162 new in 12 months. CQC data, 1 Oct 2026.

Source: CQC open data, 1 October 2026, aggregated by Care Upkeep. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains information from the Care Quality Commission. No provider is named.

2,097providers with a location in South East2,560 locations; 1 of 9 regions by locations
81%of those providers run one locationEngland: 89%
22%of rated community care locations below Good on Well-ledEngland: 19%
162new locations in the 12 months to 1 Oct 202647 first-time providers

South East has 2,560 registered home care and supported living locations, run by 2,097 providers. That is 18% of England's 14,594.

1,784 locations are domiciliary care only, 583 are registered for both domiciliary care and supported living, and 193 are supported living only. 1,034 (40%) have no CQC rating yet. 1,744 providers (83%) have a website recorded by CQC.

Ratings in South East

Ratings below are at location level for CQC's "Community based adult social care services" category, which includes home care, supported living, extra care and Shared Lives, excluding care homes. 2,021 rated locations in South East.

Ratings by key question, South East

CQC latest ratings, 1 October 2026. Unrated locations excluded.SafeSafe, Outstanding: 12 (0.6%)Safe, Good: 1,667 (82.6%)Safe, Requires improvement: 312 (15.5%)Safe, Inadequate: 27 (1.3%)2,018EffectiveEffective, Outstanding: 40 (2.0%)Effective, Good: 1,778 (90.1%)Effective, Requires improvement: 144 (7.3%)Effective, Inadequate: 12 (0.6%)1,974CaringCaring, Outstanding: 141 (7.1%)Caring, Good: 1,787 (90.2%)Caring, Requires improvement: 50 (2.5%)Caring, Inadequate: 3 (0.2%)1,981ResponsiveResponsive, Outstanding: 97 (4.9%)Responsive, Good: 1,762 (89.1%)Responsive, Requires improvement: 117 (5.9%)Responsive, Inadequate: 2 (0.1%)1,978Well-ledWell-led, Outstanding: 104 (5.2%)Well-led, Good: 1,463 (72.8%)Well-led, Requires improvement: 416 (20.7%)Well-led, Inadequate: 27 (1.3%)2,010OverallOverall, Outstanding: 107 (5.3%)Overall, Good: 1,586 (78.5%)Overall, Requires improvement: 304 (15.0%)Overall, Inadequate: 24 (1.2%)2,021
OutstandingGoodRequires improvementInadequate

Well-led: 443 of 2,010 rated locations (22%) are Requires improvement or Inadequate, against 19% across England. Safe: 339 (17%). Well-led is assessed against Regulation 17, good governance; see why Well-led is where ratings drop.

New registrations in South East

New locations by year

Location registration start dates; still-active locations only, so older years are undercounted. 2026 is January to September. Peak year on the current register: 2023 (282).20152015: 11511520162016: 13813820172017: 12612620182018: 12912920192019: 16316320202020: 14914920212021: 20120120222022: 22222220232023: 28228220242024: 25525520252025: 25325320262026: 109109

162 new locations and 47 first-time providers in the 12 months to 1 October 2026. Each new provider sent CQC a full set of supporting documents with review dates; twelve months on, those review dates fall due. What CQC means by review dates and working links.

Local authorities in South East

Local authority as CQC records it for the location's address. 19 local authorities.

Local authorityLocations
Kent433
Hampshire352
Surrey324
West Sussex223
Oxfordshire170
Milton Keynes170
Buckinghamshire137
East Sussex114
Medway109
Southampton88
Slough71
Brighton and Hove64
Reading61
Portsmouth57
Wokingham52
West Berkshire41
Isle of Wight34
Windsor and Maidenhead30
Bracknell Forest30

What CQC expects from a new provider in South East

CQC's requirements are national. A provider in South East sends the same forms and supporting documents, has the same DBS and registered manager rules, and is assessed against the same five key questions as one anywhere else in England. There are no regional CQC rules. Local authority commissioning and rates do differ; those are not CQC matters and are not covered here.
1Which documents does CQC want from my agency?

Five questions, a tick list of every form, check and document with CQC's source for each, a readiness ring, print to PDF.

 2The document checklist

CQC's own list for home care and supported living with the regulation each document answers.

 3How to apply, step by step

One email, the 25 MB limit, what rejection costs, the assessment stages, from CQC's pages.

Who this is not for. Anyone looking for a list of agencies in South East or a rating for a specific service: CQC's own website has both. This page is aggregates only and names no provider. It is not legal advice and is not endorsed by CQC.

Questions

How many home care agencies are there in South East?

2,097 providers run 2,560 registered home care or supported living locations in South East (CQC active locations file, 1 October 2026). 81% of those providers run a single location nationally.

How are home care services in South East rated by CQC?

Of 2,021 rated community adult social care locations in South East, 1,586 are Good, 107 Outstanding, 304 Requires improvement and 24 Inadequate. On the Well-led key question, 22% are below Good (England: 19%).

Does CQC have different requirements in South East?

No. CQC's registration requirements, supporting documents and assessment framework are the same across England. The numbers on this page describe the local market, not local rules.

How the numbers were made. Active, non-dormant locations in the CQC active locations file (1 October 2026) with a Domiciliary care or Supported living service type and a location region of "South East". A provider is counted in a region if it has at least one such location there, so providers operating in several regions appear in each; summing providers across regions gives more than the England total of 11,058. Location counts sum exactly to the England total. Single-location share uses the provider's locations nationally. Key question ratings come from the latest ratings file (1 October 2026), Locations sheet, community adult social care category, location-level reports, care homes excluded.
Sources
  1. CQC: HSCA active locations file, 1 October 2026 (page updated 2 October 2026)
  2. CQC: latest ratings file, 1 October 2026 (page updated 2 October 2026)

Other regions: London · East of England · West Midlands · North West · East Midlands · South West · Yorkshire and the Humber · North East. All nine: by region. Downloads: CSV and JSON with a data dictionary.

Want the documents written, dated and kept up to date?The starter pack has the 13 policies and 8 templates, each linked to its CQC source. The upkeep plan adds a monthly change log that says what changed and which policy it touches.
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