We publish this policy because you are entitled to know whether a search result is there on merit. It covers every commercial relationship that touches what appears on the site.
Looking for Care is a trading name of Looking Global Limited, a company registered in England and Wales under company number 15944828, whose registered office is Summer Shaw, Cudham Lane North, Cudham, Sevenoaks, TN14 7QR.
1. Our role
We are a directory and enquiry platform. We do not own, operate, manage, inspect or regulate the care homes listed on the site, and we are not a party to any care or accommodation contract between a family and a home.
A listing is not a recommendation, and a commercial relationship with us is no substitute for CQC registration and inspection. We cover England only.
2. Where the information comes from
From the Care Quality Commission
The core facts about a home come from the regulator:
- registered name and address;
- CQC location identifier and a link to the inspection report;
- the regulated activities and care types the home is registered for;
- telephone and website details where the source data includes them; and
- the current CQC rating and inspection date.
We use CQC open data under the Open Government Licence version 3.0. It can change between the dates we synchronise it, so check the CQC’s own record before making an important decision.
From the provider
An authorised provider may add or change:
- photographs, a logo and the profile description;
- indicative fees and what they include;
- facilities, room features and information about daily life;
- current availability;
- funding notes, visiting information and frequently asked questions; and
- contact details and posts.
The provider is responsible for the accuracy and legality of what it publishes. We moderate a listing before it goes live and may ask for evidence or remove content, but we do not inspect every facility or check every changing statement.
Photographs
Every photograph on a listing is the provider’s own photograph of that home. We do not use stock photography or generated images to illustrate a home, and a listing cannot go live without at least one real photograph. Where a home has none, we show a plain graphic that is obviously not a photograph.
3. What “Verified” means
The “Verified” badge means we have checked that the organisation or person managing the profile is authorised to act for that home. The check may include matching a work email address or telephone number to public records, comparing the submitted details against the CQC register and Companies House, reviewing supporting documents, and a decision by a member of our team.
It does not mean any of the following:
- that we have inspected the home;
- that the home holds a particular CQC rating;
- that we guarantee the standard or safety of the care;
- that every claim the provider makes has been independently checked;
- that a place is available; or
- that the home is suitable for a particular person.
The badge cannot be bought. It is earned by passing verification, and a home that pays for membership without passing verification does not display it. The CQC rating is shown separately and is never affected by any commercial relationship.
4. We do not publish reviews
There are no star ratings, review scores or written reviews from members of the public anywhere on this site, and we do not intend to add them. Review systems on directories are easy to manipulate and hard to police, and a home caring for people who cannot easily speak for themselves is exactly where that matters most.
Instead we show two things. The first is the CQC rating, which is produced by the regulator and which we display unchanged. The second is a transparency score out of 100, built from verified facts and from the provider’s own behaviour. It is made up of the CQC rating (26%), how complete the profile is (18%), whether the provider passed verification (12%), whether the photographs have been checked (10%), how recently availability was updated (10%), how reliably the home responds to enquiries (8%), whether the care types match the CQC register (6%), how recently the profile was updated (6%) and whether a weekly fee is published (4%). Unresolved reports that information is wrong subtract from it.
Nothing in that score can be bought. Every input is either a fact from the register or something the provider did.
5. Paid membership
Every home on this site is listed by its own provider under a paid membership. The directory is not a copy of the CQC register: we use the register to verify a home during review, and a listing appears in public search only once its provider has created it, we have approved it and the first payment has succeeded. A listing includes displayed contact details, the provider’s own branding, photographs, posts and full profile content, enquiries delivered directly, and analytics. When a membership ends, the listing comes off the site, and it returns if the provider takes up membership again.
The fee is £75 + VAT per home per month. There is no commission, no fee per enquiry and no charge to families at any point.
Membership gives a small, uniform boost in relevance-sorted results. It does not buy a better CQC rating, a verification badge, a transparency score or exemption from moderation.
6. Sponsored positions
We do not currently sell sponsored positions, and no listing on the site is a paid placement.
The platform is built to support them, and if we introduce them we will apply these rules from the first day: a sponsored result is labelled “Sponsored” on the result itself; no more than two sponsored positions appear, and only on the first page of relevance-sorted results; a sponsored home must still match what was searched for and still meet every visibility rule; and this policy will be updated to say that sponsorship is available before any is sold.
7. How ordinary results are ordered
Anything that does not match your search is removed before ranking begins: your filters, and the search radius, decide which homes are eligible at all. The homes that remain are then given a score out of 1, and the highest score comes first. These are the actual weights.
| Factor | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Match to your search | 35% | Whether the home offers the type of care you asked for, the amenities you selected and the funding you need. |
| Distance | 20% | How close the home is to the place or postcode you searched, within your chosen radius. |
| Transparency score | 20% | The score described in section 4, which is led by the CQC rating. |
| Availability | 10% | What the home says about whether it has a room. |
| Engagement | 10% | How much interest the listing attracts from people searching, counted in aggregate across all visitors. |
| How recently updated | 5% | When the provider last changed the listing. |
Two adjustments are then made on top of that score. Paid membership adds 0.03, which is roughly three per cent of the total and can move a home a place or two among near-equal neighbours. A newly added listing gets a boost that starts at 0.05 and falls to nothing over its first 30 days, so that a new home is not buried before anyone has seen it.
Finally, a fairness rule limits any one operator to three homes in the top ten results, moving the rest below that window. It exists so that a large group cannot fill the first page.
Choosing a different sort order replaces all of this with the one you asked for. Sorting by distance in particular is pure geography: it is ordered on exact mileage, and no score, membership or sponsorship enters it at all.
No single factor guarantees a position, and paying never overrides relevance: a home that does not match your search cannot appear because it pays. We may change how ranking works to improve relevance, fairness, fraud prevention or performance, and we will update this policy when we do.
8. Fees, availability and response information
Fees shown on a listing are indicative unless the listing says otherwise. The actual fee usually depends on an assessment of need, the room and the funding arrangement. Ask the home for a full written price and its terms.
Availability changes quickly. A status on this site is not a reservation and not a guarantee of admission.
Any response-time or engagement figure measures activity on this platform only, and will not capture telephone or in-person contact.
9. Corrections and disputes
Anyone can use “Report incorrect information” on a profile, or write to hello@lookingforcare.co.uk. We may:
- compare the report with CQC and other public records;
- ask the provider for evidence;
- correct or remove provider-supplied content;
- mark information as disputed while we look into it;
- pause a provider’s ability to edit, or its paid features; or
- refer the matter to the appropriate regulator or authority.
Official CQC facts are corrected at source or through a documented administrative process. We do not change a CQC rating because someone disagrees with it.
A dispute about who controls a listing is decided by a member of our team, not automatically. The existing manager normally keeps access while we look at it, unless security or safety requires otherwise.
10. Standards for provider content
Content a provider publishes must be accurate, fair, capable of being substantiated and suitable for a general audience. It must not:
- make a misleading, unprovable or disguised advertising claim;
- obscure or misstate fees, availability or CQC status;
- use photographs that misrepresent the actual home;
- identify residents or reveal information about their health without permission and a lawful basis;
- infringe copyright, privacy or confidentiality; or
- contain discriminatory, unlawful or unsafe material.
We may reject or remove anything that breaches these standards. The full obligations on providers are in clauses 11 and 12 of the provider business terms.
11. Questions and safety
A report about a listing is not an emergency route and is not a substitute for a home’s complaints process. Our complaints and safeguarding page explains how to reach the home, the CQC, the local council, the Ombudsman or the emergency services.
Questions about this policy can be sent to:
- Email: hello@lookingforcare.co.uk
- Post: Listings, Looking Global Limited, Summer Shaw, Cudham Lane North, Cudham, Sevenoaks, TN14 7QR