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Care Quality Commission API Data Source

The Care Quality Commission API connector enables you to ingest regulated provider and location data, inspection ratings, registration status, and service information from England's independent health and social care regulator. This connector is particularly useful for compliance monitoring, healthcare procurement analytics, care quality research, and integrating CQC data into internal reporting or dashboard systems. Follow the instructions below to create a new data flow that ingests data from a Care Quality Commission API source in Nexla.
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Care Quality Commission API

Create a New Data Flow​

  1. To create a new data flow, navigate to the Integrate section, and click the New Data Flow button. Then, select the desired flow type from the list, and click the Create button.

  2. Select the Care Quality Commission API connector tile from the list of available connectors. Then, select the credential that will be used to connect to the Care Quality Commission API instance, and click Next; or, create a new Care Quality Commission API credential for use in this flow.

  3. In Nexla, Care Quality Commission API data sources can be created using pre-built endpoint templates, which expedite source setup for common Care Quality Commission API endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Care Quality Commission API endpoint, making source configuration easy and efficient.
    • To configure this source using a template, follow the instructions in Configure Using a Template.

    Care Quality Commission API sources can also be configured manually, allowing you to ingest data from Care Quality Commission API endpoints not included in the pre-built templates or apply further customizations to exactly suit your needs.
    • To configure this source manually, follow the instructions in Configure Manually.

Configure Using a Template​

Nexla provides pre-built templates that can be used to rapidly configure data sources to ingest data from common Care Quality Commission API endpoints. Each template is designed specifically for the corresponding Care Quality Commission API endpoint, making data source setup easy and efficient.

Endpoint Settings​

  • Select the endpoint from which this source will fetch data from the Endpoint pulldown menu. Available endpoint templates are listed in the expandable boxes below. Click on an endpoint to see more information about it and how to configure your data source for this endpoint.

    Get Providers

    This endpoint retrieves a list of registered care providers from the CQC registry. A provider is an organisation or individual that manages one or more regulated care services. Use this endpoint to access provider registration details, contact information, ownership type, and registration status for all active and inactive providers across England.

    • This endpoint automatically retrieves all providers accessible with your subscription. The CQC dataset is paginated, and Nexla will automatically handle pagination to retrieve the full provider list.
    • Each provider record includes fields such as provider ID, provider name, registration status, ownership type, primary category, phone number, website, and registered address.
    • You can use the retrieved provider IDs as inputs for more detailed provider lookups, including their associated locations and inspection reports.

    The CQC registry contains both active and de-registered providers. Review the registrationStatus field in returned records to filter for currently active providers. For complete information about provider data fields, see the CQC Developer Portal API documentation.

    Get Locations

    This endpoint retrieves a list of regulated care locations from the CQC registry. A location is a specific site where a regulated service is delivered—such as a hospital ward, care home, GP surgery, or dental practice. Use this endpoint to access location-level data including inspection ratings, service types, address details, and registration status.

    • This endpoint retrieves all locations in the CQC registry, paginating automatically to return the complete dataset.
    • Each location record includes fields such as location ID, location name, CQC overall rating (Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, Inadequate), registration status, address, service types, and the associated provider ID.
    • Location records include the most recent CQC inspection rating for the site. The currentRatings object contains the overall rating and any key question ratings (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-led).

    Location IDs and provider IDs in CQC data follow a specific format (e.g., 1-123456789). These IDs are stable identifiers that can be used to join location data with provider data or to look up detailed inspection reports. For complete information about location data fields and ratings, see the CQC Developer Portal API documentation.

    Get Provider Details

    This endpoint retrieves detailed information for a specific registered provider by provider ID. Use this endpoint when you need comprehensive data about a particular provider, including their full registration details, associated locations, inspection history, and contacts.

    • Enter the Provider ID in the Provider ID field. Provider IDs follow the CQC format (e.g., 1-123456789) and can be obtained in the following ways:

      • Using the Get Providers endpoint to retrieve a list of providers and their corresponding IDs.
      • Looking up a provider on the CQC website and copying the ID from the provider's detail page URL.
    • The response includes comprehensive provider-level data: registered address, contact details, registration status, ownership type, the list of regulated activities, associated location IDs, and last inspection date.

    Detailed provider records contain a locationIds array that lists all regulated locations managed by the provider. You can use these IDs with the Get Location Details endpoint to retrieve inspection ratings and service information for each site.

    Get Location Details

    This endpoint retrieves detailed information for a specific regulated location by location ID. Use this endpoint when you need comprehensive data about a particular care site, including its current CQC inspection ratings across all key questions, regulated activities, service types, and specialist service designations.

    • Enter the Location ID in the Location ID field. Location IDs follow the CQC format (e.g., 1-123456789) and can be obtained in the following ways:

      • Using the Get Locations endpoint to retrieve a full list of locations and their IDs.
      • Using the Get Provider Details endpoint to find the locationIds array for a specific provider.
      • Looking up a location on the CQC website and copying the location ID from the URL.
    • The response includes the current overall rating, ratings for each CQC key question (Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive, Well-led), type of service, regulated activities, nomination status, and the date of the most recent inspection.
    • The currentRatings object in the response contains both the current overall rating and any legacy report ratings, giving a complete picture of the location's inspection history.

    CQC ratings use a four-point scale: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, and Inadequate. A rating of null or absent indicates that the location has not yet been inspected or that a rating is not applicable for that key question. For complete information about the rating framework, see How CQC Regulates.

    Get Changes

    This endpoint retrieves a list of providers or locations that have been updated in the CQC registry within a specified date range. Use this endpoint to build incremental data pipelines that capture only new or changed records, reducing the volume of data processed on each run and keeping your systems up to date with the latest CQC data.

    • Enter the start date in the Start Timestamp field using the format YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SSZ (e.g., 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z). This defines the beginning of the time window for which changes will be retrieved.
    • Optionally, enter an end date in the End Timestamp field using the same format. If left blank, the endpoint will return all changes from the start timestamp up to the current time.
    • Select whether to retrieve changes for providers or locations using the appropriate resource type parameter.
    • The response includes the IDs of all providers or locations that were added, updated, or de-registered within the specified period, along with the type of change.

    The Get Changes endpoint is ideal for building scheduled incremental refresh pipelines. By using {now-1} as the start timestamp and {now} as the end timestamp in the API URL with Nexla's date/time macros, you can automatically capture each day's changes without reprocessing the entire CQC dataset. See the Date/Time Macros section under Configure Manually for guidance on using macros in the API URL.

Endpoint Testing​

Once the selected endpoint template has been configured, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current settings. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Configure Manually​

Care Quality Commission API data sources can be manually configured to ingest data from any valid Care Quality Commission API endpoint. Manual configuration provides maximum flexibility for accessing endpoints not covered by pre-built templates or when you need custom API configurations.

With manual configuration, you can also create more complex Care Quality Commission API sources, such as sources that use chained API calls to fetch data from multiple endpoints or sources that require custom request parameters.

API Method​

  1. To manually configure this source, select the Advanced tab at the top of the configuration screen.

  2. Select the API method that will be used for calls to the Care Quality Commission API from the Method pulldown menu. The most common methods are:

    • GET: For retrieving data from the API (used for all standard CQC data retrieval operations)
    • POST: For sending data to the API or triggering actions

API Endpoint URL​

  1. Enter the URL of the Care Quality Commission API endpoint from which this source will fetch data in the Set API URL field. This should be the complete URL including the protocol (https://) and any required path parameters.

    Common CQC API endpoint URL patterns include:

    • Providers list: https://api.service.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/providers
    • Single provider: https://api.service.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/providers/{providerId}
    • Locations list: https://api.service.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/locations
    • Single location: https://api.service.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/locations/{locationId}
    • Changes: https://api.service.cqc.org.uk/public/v1/changes/provider?startTimestamp=2024-01-01T00:00:00Z

Ensure the API endpoint URL is correct and accessible with your current credentials. You can test the endpoint using the Test button after configuring the URL. The CQC API requires your subscription key to be passed as a request header—this is handled automatically by Nexla using the key stored in your credential.

Date/Time Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Optionally, the API URL can be customized using macros—all macros added to the API URL will be converted into values when Nexla executes the API call. Macros are dynamic placeholders that allow you to create flexible API endpoints that can adapt to different time periods or data requirements.

Macros are particularly useful for the CQC Changes endpoint, which accepts startTimestamp and endTimestamp query parameters. By using date/time macros, you can automatically capture only records changed within the last day, week, or other time window on each run.

  1. To add a macro, type { at the appropriate position in the API URL (within the Set API URL field), and select the desired macro from the dropdown list.

    • {now} – The current datetime
    • {now-1} – The datetime one time unit before the current datetime
    • {now+1} – The datetime one time unit after the current datetime
    • custom – Datetime macros can reference any number of time units before or after the current datetime—for example, enter (now-4) to indicate the datetime four time units before the current datetime

  2. Select the format that will be applied to datetime macros from the Date Format for Date/Time Macro pulldown menu. This format will be applied to the base datetime value of the macro—i.e., the value of {now} in {now-1}.

  3. Select the datetime unit that will be used to perform mathematical operations in the included macro(s) from the Time Unit for Operations pulldown menu—for example, for the macro {now-1}, when Day is selected, {now-1} will be converted to the datetime one day before the current datetime.

Lookup-Based Macros (API URL)​

Optional

Column values from existing lookups can also be included as macros in the API URL. Lookup-based macros allow you to reference data from previously configured data sources or lookups, enabling dynamic API endpoints that can adapt based on existing data.

Lookup-based macros are useful for the CQC API when you need to fetch detailed records for a list of provider IDs or location IDs retrieved from another Nexla source. For example, you can use a lookup of provider IDs from a Get Providers source to dynamically fetch the detailed record for each provider.

  1. To include a lookup column value macro, select the relevant lookup from the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

  2. Type { at the appropriate position in the API URL, and select the lookup column-based macro from the dropdown list. Lookup-based macros are automatically populated into the macro list when a lookup is selected in the Add Lookups to Supported Macros pulldown menu.

Path to Data​

Optional

If only a subset of the data that will be returned by API endpoint is needed, you can designate the part(s) of the response that should be included in the Nexset(s) produced from this source by specifying the path to the relevant data within the response. This is particularly useful when API responses contain metadata, pagination information, or other data that you don't need for your analysis.

For example, when a request call is used to fetch a list of CQC locations, the API will typically return an array of location records along with pagination metadata. By entering the path to the relevant data, you can configure Nexla to treat each element of the returned array as a record.

Path to Data is essential for CQC API responses that have nested structures. For example, the Locations list endpoint returns data in a structure such as {"locations": [...], "total": 12345, "nextPageUri": "..."}. Setting the path to $.locations[*] ensures Nexla treats each element in the locations array as a separate record.

  • To specify which data should be treated as relevant in responses from this source, enter the path to the relevant data in the Set Path to Data in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format enter the JSON path that points to the object or array that should be treated as relevant data. JSON paths use dot notation (e.g., $.locations[*] to access the array of location objects, or $.providers[*] for provider lists).
    Path to Data Example:

    If the CQC API response is in JSON format and includes a top-level array named locations that contains the relevant records, the path to the data would be entered as $.locations[*].

Autogenerate Path Suggestions​

Nexla can also autogenerate data path suggestions based on the response from the API endpoint. These suggested paths can be used as-is or modified to exactly suit your needs.

  • To use this feature, click the Test button next to the Set API URL field to fetch a sample response from the API endpoint. Suggested data paths generated based on the content & format of the response will be displayed in the Suggestions box below the Set Path to Data in Response field.

  • Click on a suggestion to automatically populate the Set Path to Data in Response field with the corresponding path. The populated path can be modified directly within the field if further customization is needed.

    PathSuggestions.png

Metadata​

If metadata is included in the response but is located outside of the defined path to relevant data, you can configure Nexla to include this data as common metadata in each record. This is useful when you want to preserve important contextual information that applies to all records but isn't part of the main data array.

For example, when a request call is used to fetch a list of CQC providers, the API response will typically include the provider array along with pagination metadata such as total count and nextPageUri. If you have specified the path to the relevant data but want to preserve the total count alongside each record, you can specify a metadata path.

Metadata paths are particularly useful for preserving CQC API response context like total record counts or pagination information that applies to all records in the response.

  • To specify the location of metadata that should be included with each record, enter the path to the relevant metadata in the Path to Metadata in Response field.

    • For responses in JSON format, enter the JSON path to the object or array that contains the metadata.

Request Headers​

Optional

  • If Nexla should include any additional request headers in API calls to this source, enter the headers & corresponding values as comma-separated pairs in the Request Headers field (e.g., header1:value1,header2:value2). Additional headers may be required for API versioning or other custom requirements.

    You do not need to include the subscription-key authentication header here—it is handled automatically by Nexla using the value stored in your Care Quality Commission API credential. Common headers like Authorization and Content-Type are typically handled automatically by Nexla based on your credential configuration.

Endpoint Testing​

After configuring all settings for the selected endpoint, Nexla can retrieve a sample of the data that will be fetched according to the current configuration. This allows users to verify that the source is configured correctly before saving.

  • To test the current endpoint configuration, click the Test button to the right of the endpoint selection menu. Sample data will be fetched & displayed in the Endpoint Test Result panel on the right.

  • If the sample data is not as expected, review the selected endpoint and associated settings, and make any necessary adjustments. Then, click the Test button again, and check the sample data to ensure that the correct information is displayed.

Save & Activate the Source​

  1. Once all of the relevant steps in the above sections have been completed, click the Create button in the upper right corner of the screen to save and create the new Care Quality Commission API data source. Nexla will now begin ingesting data from the configured endpoint and will organize any data that it finds into one or more Nexsets.