(CQC) is the organisation responsible for ensuring that health and social care services in England – including hospitals, care homes, dental practices and GP surgeries – provide safe, high-quality care.
The CQC regularly checks services to ensure they meet national standards for quality and safety, and is in the course of introducing new-style inspections which will rate services as outstanding, good, requiring improvement or inadequate.
The national standards are set by Parliament and can be found on the CQC website.